This map of Monmouth was first published separately and in a very rare atlas begun by Thomas Dix (1769/70-1813) which was completed with the help of William Darton (1781-1854) in 1822. Dix was a schoolmaster before becoming a surveyor in Northamptonshire and Norfolk. One of his earliest cartographic items was the ‘Juvenile Atlas’ published by Darton. On Dix’s death he had been working on a folio county atlas. The title of the first edition states ‘commenced by the late Thomas Dix, of North Walsham; carried on and completed by William Darton’. Darton was the son of William Darton (1755-1819), the founder of a family of engravers, book and mapsellers, publishers, and printers. Our William Darton was apprenticed to his father and made free in 1802. He formed his own business in 1804 in partnership with his brother Thomas Darton (1783-1855) which lasted until 1810.

In 1830 Darton’s son John Maw Darton (1810-81) joined him in the business and the name was changed around that time to Darton & Son, the imprints on these maps were changed accordingly. The undated atlas is normally ascribed to c.1835. The partnership was dissolved when William Darton retired in 1837. This map of Monmouth bears an attractive uncoloured vignette view of Ragland Castle. One of the main alterations is the addition of Parliamentary information drawn from the Representation of the People Act, otherwise known as the Reform Act, of 1832 which spurred its issue. Not in Chubb (1927); Michael (1985) p. 57; Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).