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[Stratham, New Hampshire,] 4 August 1792. Manuscript map, 9.875” x 7.75” (sheet size), ink and watercolor on laid paper. CONDITION: Good, with overall toning, moderate damp-staining, a few small holes and chips, and minor surface loss to paper in title margin.

An extraordinary discovery, this is an original manuscript draft by Phinehas Merrill for his seminal Plan of the Town of Stratham, published in 1793—the only map of a New Hampshire town published in the eighteenth century, and a key example of early American mapmaking. This remarkable survival in Merrill's own hand differs in numerous ways from the printed map and offers fascinating insights into its evolution.

The map depicts Merrill’s hometown of Stratham (inc. 1716), situated in Southeastern New Hampshire, along the Squamscott River, appearing here at left forming the town’s meandering western boundary. Each of the town’s other boundaries are straight lines, and an important maple tree, a key landmark at the southeast corner, marks the meeting point of three town lines: those of Stratham, Exeter, and Northampton. The map features roads, houses, meeting houses, a schoolhouse, mills, and some topography, including prominent hills, ponds, and swamps.

Throughout, Merrill identifies nearly 150 property owners. Houses are represented in profile, with many at odd angles, possibly suggesting their orientation to the road. Each bears the name of the owner, with the names of those not actively residing at that location underlined. In one instance an owner’s name has been scratched out and another substituted, reflecting either a mistake or a change in ownership. In the southeast corner, just north of the house of S. Smith, is the small but unlabeled home of “Cesar,” a free man of color. Cesar’s name subsequently appears on the printed map, although, perhaps tellingly, no surname is provided, whereas all other property owners are identified by first name or initial and surname.

The town center, indicated by a bullseye, is highlighted in yellow, green, and red, while major transverse roads are highlighted in yellow. Other roads appear in orange and green. The Squamscott River and a few other bodies of water are colored green. Below the map, Merrill has added a scale (“200 rods to an Inch”) and explanatory text which is similar to the text on the printed map, but less succinct. He notes that the names of absentee landholders are underlined by “a stroke of the pen thus——,” underscoring the manuscript nature of this piece. The word ‘pen’ has been eliminated from this phrase on the printed map.

The map is composed in a fine hand, leading to the initial impression that it is engraved; however, high magnification leaves no doubt that the entire piece is manuscript. While there are numerous details that differ from those on the printed map, we note just a few representative ones here:

Near the top of the map, a directional arrow appears in the space between “Heathy Swamp” and a hill to the north. On the printed map the arrow has been removed and a second hill appears in the same space.

The road from Great Bridge running east, then bifurcating to a northern route that meets the main road at the “W. Weeks” Residence, and a southern route that follows the stream, meeting the main road at the home of “Col. Rufus,” is here faintly drawn in pencil, but is engraved on the 1793 map.

Text along a bend in the river at lower right reads “One Mile Round.” On the printed map this has been changed to “Round about.”

Just above the site identified as “Heirs of J. Folsom” at upper left is the name of owner H. Keniston. On the printed map this has been changed to “Kennison’s Inn” and the name “Wido. S. Wiggin” has been substituted for that of the previous owner of the associated house, “N. Barker.”

South of the word “Binding” along the northern boundary is a road junction, with a road added that runs south along the eastern slope of a hill to meet another road near the home of “N. Avey” [sic., should be “Avery”]. This road appears faintly in blue pencil on our map but is fully realized on the printed version.

West of the hill, our map identifies “N. Brown” as the owner of a home; this is changed to “J. Brown” on the printed map (an example of the many minor property-ownership changes throughout).

A compass rose is added in the lower right corner of the printed map (an example of the changes in decorative elements throughout), presumably substituted for the previously mentioned arrow near Heathy Swamp.

Some interesting points:

Tiny pinholes line the roads. These are copy guides that follow the roads closely, a technique used by early mapmakers to exactly reproduce a map. Presumably, in this case, they served as guides for laying out another draft.

Under high magnification, faint chalk marks can be seen serving as guides for the text.

Few maps were published in the United States between the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and the early 1800s, when American map publishing began to flourish. The first map published in the newly independent United States was Abel Buell’s 1784 A New and Correct Map of the United States of North America. This was followed by the maps of Christopher Colles, A Survey of the Roads of the United States. Phinehas Merrill’s map of Stratham, New Hampshire, is the next notable post-Revolution map. Deceptively naive in appearance, it offers a remarkably granular representation of a single town unprecedented in American map publishing of the period. Subsequent American maps published prior to 1800 include the exceedingly rare Plan of the Town of Esperanza of 1794 and the first edition of Carey’s 1795 American Atlas.

Phinehas Merrill (1767–1815) was a native of Stratham, a mathematician, author, penman, surveyor, and town official. In addition to a second edition of his Stratham map, two other printed maps bear Merrill’s 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 the second and much revised edition of Plan of the Town of Stratham 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 printed and manuscript 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).

An exceptionally rare and charming example of an eighteenth century American mapmaker’s working draft of a seminal town plan.

Item #9988

Price: $25,000.00