EVANS, LEWIS (c. 1700 - 1756), cartographer

Name: Lewis Evans
Date of birth: c. 1700
Date of death: 1756
Spouse: Martha Evans (née Hoskins)
Child: Amelia Evans
Gender: Male
Occupation: cartographer
Area of activity: Art and Architecture; Engineering, Construction, Naval Architecture and Surveying; Travel and Exploration
Author: Mary Gwyneth Lewis

Believed to have been born in the parish of Llangwnnad, Caernarfonshire. He became a land surveyor in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he published A Map of Pensilvania, New Jersey, New York and the three Delaware counties, including notes on thunder and lightning (revised ed. 1752). His most notable map is A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America (1755); boundary disputes were decided on its authority and much use was made of it during the Seven Years War. In the Analysis which was published with the map the author expressed his opinion on the French claim to land which led to severe criticism in an anonymous article in The New York Mercury, 5 January 1756, to which Evans responded within five days by publishing a second treatise. He had intended publishing maps of all the separate states, but he died 12 June 1756 before completing the task; he was at the time in custody in New York on a charge of libel against the governor Robert Hunter Morris. His map was used unacknowledged many times between 1755 and 1814 by London map publishers. In 1776 it was published in America by Thomas Pownall with his Topographical Description of North America to aid Evans' family which was in straightened circumstances.

He married in 1743 Martha Hoskins (died c. 1746) at Christ Church, Philadelphia and they had a daughter, Amelia (and possibly other children).

Author

Published date: 2001

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

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