Both Charles Smith (1768?-1854) and John Cary were great rivals in the first half of the nineteenth century. Smith was born in London. Of his early life, little is known, his year of birth is derived from his age given as 83 on the 1851 census. The ‘New English Atlas’ was first issued in fifteen parts, each consisting of three maps. The final part contains a note to the subscribers dated 24 February 1804. Both Charles Smith and John Cary were great rivals in the first half of the nineteenth century. Smith’s ‘New English Atlas’ first published in 1804 is a large, handsome and detailed county atlas. Indeed Cary would model his similarly entitled work of 1809 on it, although production ran concurrently at the beginning. Smith’s county maps bear the distinction of being the first to show longitudes from the meridian of Greenwich Observatory. The quality of the engraving is easily a match for those by Cary. This work is probably Smith’s most respected.

The maps were often revised in the early years and from the beginning were available individually. There were several later editions to 1839. The second edition of the ‘New English Atlas’ was published in 1808. For that edition the date of the imprint on all the maps is altered to 1804 and ‘corrected to 1808’ is added below. These two editions are by far the most commonly seen. A third edition was issued in 1818 followed by an 1820. All but two maps bear ‘3rd. Edition Corrected to 1818’, the exceptions are those of England and Dorset, both dated 1821, the year of a further edition. Provenance: R. Rycroft stamp on verso of one map, manuscript notation of a Rycroft burial site on South West Yorkshire sheet; RHCR; Hastings Public Library; private English collection. Chubb (1927) 314; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).