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Merrill, Phinehas.

Plan of the Town of Stratham [New Hampshire].

[Stratham?], 17 July 1793. Hand-colored engraving, 9.375” x 7.375”, sheet size 9.875” x 7.75”; laid paper with watermark consisting of the figure of Brittania within a circular border surmounted by a crown. CONDITION: A very good, un-restored copy, toned, sliver of margin trimmed at lower right, a few minor abrasions and small chips to margin.

The first edition of the first printed plan of a New Hampshire town, compiled and drafted by a surveyor known for his contributions to the early mapping of the state. 

Depicted here is the town of Stratham bounded on the northwest side by the Squamscott River and a portion of the Great Bay into which it flows, as well as the towns of Newmarket and Exeter; on the southeastern side by Greenland and North Hampton; along the northeastern line by Greenland; and along the southwest by Exeter. Drawn on a scale of 200 rods to an inch, the map reveals Stratham as a town with approximately 150 dwellings, most of which are represented by small images of houses in several styles and on varying scales. The owner of each house is identified and in numerous instances the homes of relatives are clustered together, as with the Wiggin, French, Veasey, and Ladd families as well as others. The home of “E. Merrill,” presumably that of Phinehas’s brother, Eliphalet, is shown near the dwellings of other Merrills, although none of these houses belong to Phinehas, who later purchased the residence identified here as that of Major D. L. Chace, as shown on the second edition of this map, published in 1806. A home near the southern town line is identified as belonging to a man simply named “Cesar,” undoubtedly a Black man. Cesar was a common name for African American men in the eighteenth century, and tellingly, virtually every other property owner on the map is identified by first initial or first name and last name. 

Other buildings represented include four schoolhouses, Kennison’s Inn, Chace’s Inn, two grist mills, a tide mill, a fulling mill, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Congregational Meetinghouse, the latter unnamed but represented by a large steepled building. An explanation at the bottom reads “The figures on the roads represent the distance in miles, parts and rods, from the great meetinghouse [the Congregational] :- If the owner does not reside in his house under his name is a stroke thus, —.” Among the absentee homeowners was Colonel E. Ladd, who owned two houses, neither of which he occupied. Other features include a bullseye at the center of the map identifying “the Centre of the Town”; a maple tree marking the southeastern corner of the town border; a compass rose in the lower right corner; several hills, including “Rail Timber Hill”; and, among the various roads, one with the intriguing and amusing name of “Frying Pan Lane.”

Phinehas Merrill (1767–1815) was a native of Stratham, a mathematician, author, penman, surveyor, and town official. Two other printed maps bear his name, A Plan of the Compact Part of the Town of Exeter (1802) and A Plan of the Town of Exeter (1802). Merrill also made significant contributions to Philip Carrigain’s New Hampshire by Recent Survey (1816), drafting plans of at least eight towns in response to the Legislature’s Act of 1803 calling for an official state map, which required towns to submit plans to be compiled into a comprehensive map. While Merrill’s name does not appear on the Carrigain map as published, it does appear on the manuscript map from which it was engraved, which is owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society. 

Merrill published a second and much revised edition of the present map in 1806 in connection with his contributions to the official state map. Many of the fifty-six or more alterations involve property transfers, including Merrill’s own purchase of Major D. L. Chace’s home, near the Congregational meetinghouse. In addition to the maps to his credit, Merrill wrote The Scholar’s Guide to Arithmetic (Exeter, 1793) and Gazetteer of the State of New-Hampshire (published posthumously in Exeter in 1817 by Merrill’s brother Eliphalet).

OCLC records seven copies of the first edition of this map, at New Hampshire Historical Society, Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library of Congress, University of Maine Orono, the Osher Map Library, Dartmouth College, and the Clements Library. 

A fascinating and delightful New Hampshire town plan, highly evocative of eighteenth-century New England village life.

REFERENCES: Cobb 66; Wheat & Brun 184; Benes, Peter. New England Prospect : a Loan Exhibition of Maps at the Currier Gallery of Art (Boston, 1981), pp. 44–46.

Item #9063

Price: $8,500.00

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