Well, here it is, July 4th. The 250th anniversary of the founding of the greatest country in the world. This year also marks 300 years of the arrival of our intrepid friend from London, William Longmire, to the shores of Virginia. And so, I find it fitting to introduce to the small audience of hat thief fans out there to a heretofore unknown facet of William’s work in the field of cartography. What if I were to point out that one of the most important maps in Virginia history was partially (mostly) executed in the hand of William Longmire? What if I were to say that more than one important map may have his handwriting included in the body of work? Whoa, Longmire! Where do you even come up with this stuff? Yeah, I know … got your attention, did I? Well, let’s look below at the evidence and imagine this much like the unfolding of a crime drama.

Like any good crime drama it is important to include items such as means, motive, evidence, and that all important thing called opportunity. This case will also necessitate a little bit of patience. Yours, as I plan on making this a 2-part episode. And maybe you, the jury, and I, the investigator can find out who did take that quill and ink bottle and write all sorts of names and places and river courses and little towns on somebody’s very well executed survey map of the Northern Neck Proprietary.

Before we dig in I would like the readers to indulge me a bit. Please read an article written by Fairfax Harrison in 1924 in the William and Mary Quarterly. Easily found online it is titled “The Northern Neck Proprietary Maps of 1737 – 1747” 2nd series, Vol 4, number 1. It is a very readable, well written and informative piece explaining the fight between the Virginia Colony and the Proprietorship of Lord Fairfax and the dispersal of millions of acres of property and who owned what parts. For those familiar I have written in this blog about this to some extent and have previously alluded to William’s various cartographic related work which can be found in the Northern Neck Book E – Grants and Surveys. A very important detail in the Harrison article, and which I will amend somewhat in this article, helps to place William in the context I attribute to him. This particular item stems from a statement Harrison makes regarding the dearth of work attributed to John Warner, the noted surveyor of King George County and developer of one of the most famous and important maps in the history of Virginia: A Survey of the Northern Neck, being the lands belonging to the Rt. Honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron Cameron Bounded by and within the Bay of Chesapoyocke and between the Rivers Rappahannock and Potowmack: … as surveyed according to Order in the years 1736 and 1737. A nice image of this map can be found online at Library of Congress for reference. Later I will append some relevant comments about this map. Getting back to the work of John Warner, and I hate to burst Mr Harrison’s bubble in his otherwise excellent article, but I take small issue with him saying that out of the few remaining examples of his work there still exists the Leeds of Manor and Belvoir maps. However, though Warner did the actual surveys for those parcels the actual drawings in Book E were done by William Longmire. As I will show later all of the writing of deeds and grants, surveys of parcels showing acreages, etc up until page 245 was in the hand of William Longmire. Everything except the signatures of Wm Fairfax or Lord Fairfax. There are numerous examples where William would take the survey and/or field notes, dimensions and acreage of various surveyors – even back-dating to 1732 – and record them in the official books and/or records of the Proprietary. Another example showing the extent in which Warner and Longmire worked together on these records can be shown when you compare pages 216 and 217 in Book E. On page 216 William wrote the actual deed with acreage and bounds whereas page 217 has the actual survey recorded, also in the hand of William. Compare this to what is commonly called the 1740 patent/survey for this same piece of land and you will see that the survey bounds are identical as is the handwriting accompanying the same with the actual field notes to the right. Those field notes “may” be in the hand of Warner though they look much like the writing of Longmire comparable to entries he made in Thomas Turner’s ledger accounts in the early to late 1740’s where the writing was in real time vs his more scrivener type writing/copying. This brings up the paleographical question as to whether those field notes are William’s or Warner’s and if it is possible that William may have even worked with Warner in the field or not. This latter point is unlikely and probably more of a duplicate record example which I have found before – the Deed for Rev Green I found in the Washington Family Papers at LoC being one such example. As was customary William would enter the deed into the books and produce another deed for the purchaser/grantee.

Okay, we now have some “means” and “opportunity” to chew on. The above, though a snippet of how William interacted with various surveyors and his work at the Land Office, puts him in the category of suspect for my next turning the historical applecart over moment. One important item I should bring up. In reading the Harrison article list of Commissioners chosen by Lord Fairfax two names appear which have much bearing on William’s life for the period I write about and later, when William worked for the court: Charles Carter and Wm Fairfax. Elsewhere in this blog I have written about my theory that Carter was the person who may have been a benefactor to William and/or was the person most likely to have introduced him to Wm Fairfax. I also have brought up the very curious coincidence of William first working for the court immediately after Wm Fairfax became a Justice there. Just some more food for thought … Anyways, I must ask for your indulgence once more as pertains this cartographic business. If you could simply use your google machine and locate the Univ of Pittsburg Darlington Digital Images page and once there in the search bar type: DARMAP0585

There you have it in all it’s glory. Sheets one and two of the “1737 Survey Map by William Mayo”. This is THE precursor survey map of the famous John Warner map of 1747. And if you click on various parts of sheet one or two with the little magnifying glass and peer closely you will see the unmistakable writing of William Longmire all over them. Ha! This is the official copy for Lord Fairfax prepared by William Mayo and John Savage. This map was most probably created just down the road from William’s house at the Land Office of Lord Fairfax, commonly known as Indiantown House nowadays. In reviewing the Harrison article you will recall that there were two competing groups of surveyors and Commissioners and that two separate maps were sent to London to be reviewed by Crown interests. The map you see now was the result of an agreement between both parties as to the correctness of the bounds prior to the settlement of the competing maps. Thus, it was the official copy for use of the Proprietary. Given that Wm Longmire had already worked on the Book E entries in 1736 and used his own cartographic copying skills he was the logical choice to make this copy for use by Lord Fairfax as it was not only a Proprietary document but also legally commissioned by the Crown in a most important dispute. Another item worth pointing out is that the survey work referred to lists the years 1736 and 1737. Those were the definitive years when the main work by both groups took place. Thus, this copy, though dated Jan 1, 1737 was actually the beginning of the year 1738. Once again showing that some time had elapsed and continuity in the maps had been established between the two factions. And 1738 was a big year for William as he not only witnessed a document for Elizabeth Lomax, one of the wealthiest women in the colonies at the time, but dovetails in with his initial work at the courthouse. It also places him in the very area where he should be if he is seriously to be considered the main candidate by cartographers and historians. And yes, there are a few who have been privy to this little historical escapade through recent correspondence.

Well, here it is after 12 and the temps will hit 100 again. I better get to my concrete work and pick up on part 2 on Monday. There is another almost unbelievable “what if” I have to chat about … and yes, map related.

Happy Fourth everybody!

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