Mapping Colonial Boston
What biases or perspectives are depicted in the following maps of early Boston? How did the city’s geography impact the American Revolutionary War?
Source Set
The Town of Boston in New England by John Bonner is the first printed map of Boston, Massachusetts. Bonner (circa 1643-1726) was a captain, navigator, and shipwright. A wealth of information about pre-Revolutionary Boston is available through Bonner's map, including street layouts, churches, and public buildings.
The map also illustrates Boston's importance as a port city, detailing the location of docks, shipyards, wharves, and ropewalks. Bonner's map includes the years of construction for significant churches and public buildings, as well as the years in which great fires and outbreaks of smallpox occurred. At the time of printing, Boston had 42 streets, 36 lanes, and 22 alleys. There were nearly 3,000 houses of which 1,000 were brick and the rest were of timber. The population was estimated to be near 15,000.
Citation: The Town of Boston in New England by Capt. John Bonner, Map, Boston: printed by Francis Dewing, 1722 [i.e. 1725], Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1732.
In 1835, George Girdler Smith (1795-1878), an engraver, re-issued the 1722 Bonner map of Boston. The facsimile map includes alterations to the topography of Boston since the first printing of Bonner's map in 1722. These alterations—new streets, buildings, and waterfront developments—appear in red, blue, and green ink.
Alterations in red occurred between 1722 and 1733; in blue, between 1734 and 1743; and in green, between 1743 and 1769. The map does not reflect changes made to the Mill Pond area near the North End which the city filled in 1804 with earth taken from Beacon Hill. The map includes an index to points of interest and chronological lists of "Great Fires" and "Genll. small pox."
Citation: The Town of Boston in New England by Capt. John Bonner, 1722, Facsimile map by George Smith after map by John Bonner, Boston: George G. Smith, 1835, This is a facsimile of the map engraved and printed by Francis Dewing, Boston, 1722 [i.e.1725] Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1733.
Completed on 10 April 1919, this map by Samuel Chester Clough (1873-1949) shows property owners and land lots in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1648. This map informs his later maps of 1676 and 1798, as well as his atlas.
An inscription on this map lists Clough's sources: "Drawn by Samuel C. Clough in accordance with information compiled from the records of the Colony, Town, Registry of Deeds, Suffolk Probate, and Supreme Court; Book of Possessions, Winthrop Journal, Lechford Note Book, Aspinwall's Notes and City Surveys." The map shows a densely populated Shawmut peninsula, especially the area around present-day State Street, Government Center, and Faneuil Hall. The hills, fields, and marshland all but disappear over the next century as the land was divided, sold, made, and developed. The map hints that the North End was practically an island, with a tidal creek connecting the Mill Cove to the Great Cove.
Citation: Map of the Town of Boston 1648; Drawn by Samuel C. Clough, in Accordance with Information Compiled from the Records of the Colony, Manuscript map by Samuel Chester Clough, 10 April 1919, From the Samuel Chester Clough research materials toward a topographical history of Boston, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1736.
Captain John Bonner's map shows the wharves along the Boston waterfront from Long Wharf to the South Battery to "Winmel Poynt" (Windmill Point). Bonner's map also includes notations about water depth.
Citation: Manuscript map of Long Wharf (Boston, Mass.), 1714, Pen and ink by John Bonner, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1725.
This map of Boston and Charlestown was made in November 1775 by a British officer (possibly S. Biggs) and shows major geographic landmarks and man-made fortifications in the Boston area.
Many of the entrenchments, redoubts, and fortified structures are labeled with reference numbers: "1) Charlestown & entrenchments on the heights. 2) The Rebels Redoubt & Entrencht [of] 17th June sine demolished. 3) The difft Lines & Works of the Rebels. 4. Our works." Also included on the map are two lists showing distances in yards between Boston and various points, as well as from Mount Pisgah, near Winter Hill in Somerville, to various points.
Citation: Manuscript map of the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775, Pen and ink and watercolor attributed to S. Biggs, 28 November 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1712.
This manuscript map of Boston Harbor created by Jeremy Belknap in 1775, presents a large perspective of Eastern Massachusetts and the islands in the Massachusetts Bay. This map depicts the harbor islands, coastal towns from Lynn to Hingham, and roads to inland towns such as Providence, Taunton, Watertown, Worcester, Concord, and Andover.
Belknap's map indicates the major settlements and developments in Boston, Roxbury, and Charlestown, as well as minor settlements and developments in Medford, Malden, Cambridge, Watertown, and at Point Shirley in Winthrop. A piece of the map is missing along the fold line.
Citation: Manuscript map of the Boston Harbor, 1775, Pen and ink by Jeremy Belknap, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1713.
This manuscript map by Jeremy Belknap was enclosed in a letter he sent to Ebenezer Hazard on 20 September 1794 and shows the Tontine Crescent, churches and meetinghouses (including the Old South Meeting House, Trinity Church, and the Federal Street Church), wharves, and the locations of Belknap's various residences in Boston.
The map also shows the location of the origin of a fire on 30 July 1794 (within the ropewalks located near Fort Hill) and a dotted line indicates the extent of the damage. The map's western boundary is present-day Washington Street.
Citation: Manuscript map of Boston (Mass.), 20 September 1794, drawn by Jeremy Belknap, Enclosed in a letter from Jeremy Belknap to Ebenezer Hazard, 20 September 1794, From the Jeremy Belknap papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/1729.
This map by Benjamin Dearborn (1754-1838) is a proposal to construct what he called "Perpetual Tide Mills" across the Back Bay and South Bay in Boston. The plan details water and marshland as well as streets and roads of Boston, Roxbury, Brookline, Charlestown, Cambridge, Brighton, and Dorchester.
Dearborn's map, which introduces an extensive series of canals, dams, and toll roads, is a variation on a previously proposed Mill Dam project. Creating a Mill Dam and road across the Back Bay came on the heels of the successful Mill Pond project near Boston's North End.
The aim of the Mill Dam was to use the tides of the Charles River to power mills for industrial purposes. Additionally, the Dam would serve as a toll road. In the end, Dearborn's plan was not realized and a much simpler Mill Dam was built by 1821. Eventually, this project failed in part because of sewage and wastewater build-up in the tidal basins. This build-up caused unpleasant smells that drifted all over the city. As a result, in May 1855, the Back Bay began to be filled in and developed.