AN EXTREMELY RARE AND VERY EARLY ENGLISH SEA CHART of South East Asia. John Thornton (1641-1708) was one of the most important of the so-called Thames School of chart makers. “Collectively they provided the initial impetus for the great era of English mapmaking, and are classified together because they were stylistically alike, and all had premises along or near the River Thames. Thornton was one of the few from the school who made the transition to become a publisher. There is some debate as to whether he might also have been an engraver” (Burden). This map appears to be his earliest published chart. Thornton had a close working relationship with the East India Company. One of the most useful finds, particularly for these earlier charts, is an example of the ‘Atlas Maritimus’ in the Library of Samuel Pepys held at Magdalene College, Cambridge dated to c.1677. The back of each map bears a manuscript title, and in the upper corner in a similar hand, a date. After studying these dates it has been concluded that they were a very strong guide as to when the map was first issued. The geographical pattern in which they were produced also made sense. An example of this map in the atlas bears the date 1672, one year earlier than his ‘A new Map of the North part of America’ of 1673, previously thought to be the first.

Founded in 1600 the East India Company was a group of London Merchants given the exclusive rights to trade with anywhere east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. The Dutch particularly were already well established in the region which made success hard to find. The first Factory or trading post established was at Bantam on the island of Java shown on the map. It would close in 1683 as the Company had discovered that the Indian peninsula was the place to be. By 1647 they had 23 factories there. The strength of the Indian trade enabled the Company to make inroads into the spice trade in the Malacca’s going up against the Dutch in the process. In 1668 a trading post was opened in Bombay. Around 1670 King Charles II passed five Acts which greatly improved the Companies rights and powers in the region. It was with this in mind that Thornton published his first chart to illustrate the territory in which it was operating. The following year he published one of North America with similar interests in mind.

This chart covers the Indian peninsula, South East Asia and the East Indies with in the upper right corner the coast of China, Formosa (Taiwan) and the Korean island ‘Quelpaert’. With an inset map (65 x 135 mm.) of Japan to the right of the ornate title cartouche supported by two Asian natives surmounted by the Coat of Arms of the East India Company. The ‘Atlas Maritimus’ was first published by John Seller but the combination of so many varied activities, instruments, preparations for all the parts of his ‘English Pilot’, and publication of the ‘Atlas Maritimus’ and ‘Atlas Terrestris’, stretched Seller’s finances to the limit. By 1677 he was forced into an arrangement with four of his competitors. The partners included John Thornton, and William Fisher who was a successful publisher whose firm later became Mount and Page. James Atkinson and John Colson were eminent teachers of navigation. As their various works were sold the imprints were updated to reflect this partnership. As was the practice of the day the sequence of the names in the imprint indicated the priority of shares owned by each member. That listed first retained possession so here where we find the imprint of the combine in the cartouche we can see that Thornton retained control of this plate.

In comparing this chart with its Dutch counterparts, like Visscher and de Wit, several areas like India are shown to be much more accurate. Many of the Factories of the Company are shown throughout the region. John Seller’s own chart of the region was orientated with the east at the top and later Thornton issued a second updated plate which is more usually found. The two most notable differences found between these two Thornton plates is in India where in this first plate the west coast of the peninsula is found, but there is no great detail to the River Ganges river system. This chart is in its second state with the combine imprint and what appears to be an improved use of the placenames in south western India around ‘Callicutt’. Having examined now 41 examples of the ‘Atlas Maritimus’ I can show that only 6 contain this map and all in the similar second state. I can trace no example of the first state. Examples may be found at the Pepys Library, Cambridge, British Library, National Maritime Museum, Library of Congress (2 copies) and Yale. Overall A VERY RARE EARLY ENGLISH SEA CHART OF THE REGION. Refer Burden (2007) no. 432; refer Chang (2003) pl. 40 (later Thornton chart); Phillips (1909-) 3455 & 4151; Sanderson (1971) 449; Shirley, Rodney ‘The Maritime Maps and Atlases of Seller, Thornton and Mount & Page’ in ‘The Map Collector’ 73; Shirley (2004) M.Thorn 1a no. 14; Not in Tyacke.