Military maps of the eighteenth‐century and the tower of London Drawing Room

References

• The Drawing Room managed to escape mention in histories of the Tower of London, the Board of Ordnance, and the military technical services of artillery and engineers.
   Google Scholar
• London, Public Record Office. W.O. 55/421.
   Google Scholar
• Porter , Whitworth . 1889 . History of the Corps of Royal Engineers , London : Longmans, Green and Co. . The Ordnance reforms included further alterations on 22 August 1717, which reduced pay for some engineer grades and provided separate establishments for Gibraltar and Minorca
   Google Scholar
• Harley , J. B. , Petchenik , Barbara Bartz and Towner , Lawrence W. 1978 . Mapping the American Revolutionary War , 57 Chicago and London : University of Chicago Press . W.O. 47/2281. ‘Register of Draughts in the Drawing Room.’ This revises Brian Harley's contention that a cartographic workshop existed from 1683.
   Google Scholar
• Kane , John . 1815 . List of officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery ... Greenwich W.O. 47/30, 15 February 1717
   Google Scholar
• Hogg , O.F.G. 1963 . The Royal Arsenal: Its background, origin, and subsequent history , London : Oxford University Press . W.O. 54/204. Ordnance Establishment Book 1732–1740. For information on the office of the modeller, see
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 55/518.
   Google Scholar
• 1746 . The Gentleman's Magazine , : 383
   Google Scholar
• Chatham, Royal Engineer Corps Library. Conolly manuscript biographies.
   Google Scholar
• Conolly , T. W. J. and Edwards , R. F. 1898 . Roll of officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers from 1660 to 1898 , 118 – 19 . Chatham : Royal Engineers Institute .
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 54/675–77.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 54/210.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 55/2281. ‘Register of Draughts in the Drawing Room.’
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/34, 4 July 1749.
   Google Scholar
• See Table 4; Draughtsmen 1–30.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/40, 5 August 1752.
   Google Scholar
• Ibid.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/39, 23 April, 1752.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/38, 9–10 July, 1751; W.O. 47/40, 13 July 1752. In 1756, the keys to the old drawing room were surrendered and new locks were proposed. W.O. 47/47, 27 March 1756.
   Google Scholar
• Three were Gentleman Cadets from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; one being asked to satisfy the Chief Draughtsman for the favor of attending (see Table 4; W.O. 47/37, 12 February 1750.) All but two of the eight eventually made it on to the establishment after serving periods of six months to three years—those not appointed were an Ensign Morgan ‘permitted to attend for improvement’ and Charles Chetwode ‘allowed to attend.’ W.O. 55/2281, Index. After the appointment of Andrew Durnford in 1759, the practice of allowing volunteers to gain entry after a period of serving ‘on trial’ apparently ended.
   Google Scholar
• Hans , Nicolas . 1951 . New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century , London : Routledge and Kegan Paul .
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/88, 10 January 1776. It may be useful to demonstrate the comparable expansion in size of colateral institutions during the same time frame:
   Google Scholar
• a. Porter, Royal Engineers v.1, 143–217.
   Google Scholar
• Houlding , John Alan . 1977 . The Training of the British Army 1715–1795 , 102 – 3 . University of London . unpub. Ph.D. dissertation,
   Google Scholar
• Speck , W. ?. 1977 . Stability and Strife: England 1714–1760 , 41 Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press .
   Google Scholar
• Hughes , Edward . 1975 . “ ‘The Professions in the Eighteenth Century’ ” . In Aristocratic Government and Society in Eighteenth‐Century England: The Foundations of Stability , Edited by: Baugh , Daniel ?. 197 New York : New Viewpoints .
   Google Scholar
• This table shows that the expansion of Drawing Room staff outdistanced the comparative growth of other eighteenth‐century military services and within government the rate of increase can be compared possibly only to the post‐office.
   Google Scholar
• Phillimore , R. H. 1945 . Historical Records of the Survey of India , Vol. v. 1 , 316 – 20 . Dehra Dun : Survey of India . The regulations required Burrow to teach four mornings each week, although in the following month they were altered to three afternoons each week. W.O. 46/10, 12 June 1776. Perhaps the schedule was changed because the morning instruction disrupted the work of the office. Burrow was to teach algebra, geometry, and trigonometry with particular reference to their practical application. To the most qualified he was to explain methods to determine longitude and latitude and to train them in survey skills ‘to be occasionally practiced in the field.’
   Google Scholar
• Marshall , Douglas W. 1976 . The British Military Engineers, 1741–1783: A Study of Organization, Social Origin, and Cartography unpub. Ph.D. dissertation , University of Michigan . W.O. 46/10, Townshend to Major‐General Williamson, 17 January 1775. Townshend had reservations about the ability of the academy to provide capable officer training almost from the time he assumed command of the Ordnance in 1772. In response to bad reports on the conduct of cadets in 1774, he had written the RMA Lieutenant‐Governor, ‘I am determined to give discipline.’ W.O. 46/9, Townshend to Pattison, 1 October 1774. Townshend's doubts were re‐confirmed in 1780 when his inspection visit initiated a riot over a tainted leg of mutton. After the meal some cadets refused to parade and 23 were subsequently courts‐martialled. W.O. 46/12, Townshend to Bramham, 9 August, 1780. A broader discussion of technical education can be found in
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 46/10, Boddington to Debbeig, 12 March, 1776; and [Townshend to ?], 12 June, 1776.
   Google Scholar
• ‘Drawing Room Establishment at the Tower, 4 September 1782’ in Records of the Royal Military Academy 1741–1851. (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institute, 1851. Original edition compiled by W. D. Jones and second edition extended to 1892 and published that year compiled by H. D. Buchanon‐Dunlop and F. M. Eardley‐Wilmot) 39.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 46/10, 12 June 1776.
   Google Scholar
• 1851 . Mechanics Magazine , 55 25 October
   Google Scholar
• Phillimore . Survey of India , 1 317
   Google Scholar
• Harley . Mapping , 159 Burrow complained that he was never compensated for these extra services incurred while conducting field surveys. However, Ordnance accounts indicate that he was reimbursed £207.14. W.O. 47/92, 14 November, 1778. A subsequent survey was conducted along the Thames in 1780.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 55/2281, Index, and Harley, J. B., and Yolande O'Donoghue, Introduction to the Old Series Ordnance Survey
   Google Scholar
• The cost was estimated at £8,000. Harley and O'Donoghue, p. xxvii‐xxx.
   Google Scholar
• Artz , Frederick B. 1967 . The Development of Technical Education in France 1500–1850 , Cambridge : Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press .
   Google Scholar
• In 1780, the median age of entry for 34 draughtsmen then serving there was 15. (Tabulated from W.O. 34/256—see Fig. 4). Seven had been admitted at age 14, two at 13, and John Wilson had served there six months in 1776 before attending the RMA at the age of 12. This evidence contradicts the information supplied by the Ordnance to one petitioner that the mandatory age for admission was 16 (W.O. 47/60, 5 August, 1762—denial of son of Lt. Mark Lee of 117th Regt. of Invalids at Guernsey to enter Drawing Room on grounds that he was only 12.) In 1765, the son of John Humfrey was admitted at the age of 10, (Conolly mss. notebook v.17 p. 15 ‘Extracts from Tragellas’ Checkbook') and in 1790, James Maclaughlan entered at 13 (Ibid.). The point is that George Townshend, who maintained a list of 12 candidates between the ages of 15 and 16 scheduled for vacancies at the Drawing Room and the RMA and a longer list for those who were younger, acknowledged a cut‐off for entry below the age of 16, but he seems to have done little to enforce it. (British Library, Add. Ms. 5009, Townshend letter‐book, 28 March 1782.)
   Google Scholar
• ‘The Master General intends to recommend to his Majesty all the Cadets of the Upper Academy [RMA] for commissions, as well as those who he finds most proper in the Drawing Room—but as those gentlemen are not sufficiently qualified in point of proficiency he expects they will make it up as much as possible by the most earnest application to the practical part for which end all who are to have commissions must immediatly and strictly attend the laboratory and great gun practice ... those who have commissions from the Drawing Room are to be there particularly instructed in drawing, fortifications, and proportions of artillery.’ W.O. 49/11, 3 June 1779.
   Google Scholar
• Hayes , James W. 1956 . The Social and Professional Background of the Officers of the British Army 1714–1763 , 65 University of London . (unpub. M.A. thesis,
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 46/13. Townshend to Davidage, 30 April 1781.
   Google Scholar
• British Library, Add. Ms 50009, Townshend letterbook, 28 March 1782.
   Google Scholar
• Those entering before 1770 included the sons of a sergeant and two ‘gentlemen of the 2nd troop of Horse Guards’, two ‘publicans’, an orange merchant, and a ticket porter in the City of London. The group entering after 1770 included sons of two landwaiters, two Ordnance storekeepers (one ‘now a brewer clerk'), a vintner, two lieutenants in the army and one from the navy ('now secretary to the Lying‐in Hospital'), a butler to the Earl of Albemarle, and a clerk to the Lieutenant‐General of the Ordnance. Three others in the latter group eventually commissioned engineers included fathers who were a chairmaker, a steward to the late Duke of Cumberland, and a writer to the Signet in Edinburgh. W.O. 46/10. List of Draughtsman.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/54, 10 August, 1759. They were reinstated four months later after pleading apologies and the intercession of powerful friends. W.O. 47/54, 4 December, 1759.
   Google Scholar
• Cf. Hayes, op. cit.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 46/13. Townshend to Moncrief, 30 January, 1781.
   Google Scholar
• Brun , Christian . 1959 . Guide to the Manuscript Maps in the William L. Clements Library , Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan . map 637.
   Google Scholar
• British Library, Add. Mss. 17500. Skinner to Board, 3 May, 1750; and Board to Skinner, 5 May, 1750. Tarrant had some experience at drawing prior to selection because Skinner indicated he had left plans for him to do six months earlier. Skinner to Mr. Fern. 20 April 1750.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/77, 17 January, 1771. James Waterer suspended (Table 4, no. 83). W.O. 47/76, 23 and 27 November, 1770. Thomas Smart suspended (Table 4, no. 52).
   Google Scholar
• Stehelin to Smith, 11 November, 1781. Published in Records of the Royal Military Academy, p. 28.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 34/256. ‘Half Yearly Report. . .’ (see fig. 4) and W.O. 34/257. ‘Report of the state of Drawing and Mathematics in the Drawing Room .. .1781’. In 1767, William Roy had requested to see the performance of the draughtsmen. W.O. 47/69, 10 January, 1767.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/43–47.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/47, 18 June 1756; and W.O. 47/100, 20 September, 1782.
   Google Scholar
• Taylor , E. G. R. 1966 . The Mathematical Practitioners of Hanoverian England 1714–1840 , Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . British Library, Add. Mss. 38,506, 14 June, 1764. For information on Adams see
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/80, 14 August 1772. Echan is not listed in Mathematical Practitioners.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/70, 11 December, 1767.
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/106, 14 July, 1785.
   Google Scholar
• 1811 . Fourteenth Report of the Commissioners of Military Enquiry , 29 April Pay rates were stable in the early period but escalated markedly after 1776. In 1752, the lowest class was fixed at one shilling, six pence per day which increased by six pence at every step to the top where the Chief Draughtsman received five shillings plus an apartment in the Tower. By 1776 the lowest pay level had been eliminated and each class advanced by six pence to a first class at five shillings with the Chief's salary at £ 100 per annum. Draughtsmen who served on foreign stations were given additional pay of two shillings per day, although by 1800 the rate had been made equivalent to the double pay obtained by engineers. In 1786, the draughtsmen petitioned the Board of Ordnance for an increase in salaries but were turned down flat. Not until they received military rank in 1800 was a general increase ordered. (W.O. 47/40, 5 August 1752; W.O. 47/88, 10 January 1776; W.O. 47/89, 1 and 2 May 1777, and
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 46/11, Jones to Boddington, 30 June, 1778.
   Google Scholar
• ‘Drawing Room Establishment at the Tower 4 September, 1782’ . Records of the Royal Military Academy , 29
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 46/11, Haines to Townshend, 11 August 1779.
   Google Scholar
• Harley , J. B. and O'Donoghue , Yolande . 1975 . The Old Series Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales , xxvii – xxix . Lympne Castle, Kent : Harry Margary . 1977) esp. v.I,
   Google Scholar
• 1811 . Fourteenth Report of the Commissioners of Military Enquiry , 29 April : 282 Testimony of Gen. Morse, App. 4,
   Google Scholar
• Harley, et al., Mapping.
   Google Scholar
• Cumming , W. P. 1974 . British Maps of Colonial America , Chicago and London : University of Chicago Press .
   Google Scholar
• Among the 308 manuscript maps of Sir Henry Clinton, less than half provided reconnaissance information on North America. See Marshall, The British Military Engineers, Table 9, p. 335.
   Google Scholar
• 1783 . “ [Francis Grose] ” . In Advice to the Officers of the British Army . . . to which is now added for the first time some advice to the Officers of the Ordnance. , 8th ed. , 159 London : G. Kearsley .
   Google Scholar
• Moore , Hamilton . 1782 . The Practical Navigator, , 7th ed. 249 London I owe the latter reference to Rüdiger Joppien
   Google Scholar
• W.O. 47/41, 22 May, 1753.
   Google Scholar