Description
This detail from the Fry-Jefferson map of Virginia shows the stretch of the James River from the rapids west of Richmond (upper left) to Jamestown (lower right), the first English settlement near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1750 acting governor Lewis Burwell commissioned surveyors and cartographers Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson (father of Thomas Jefferson) to create a map that would include a detailed rendering of the waterways, mountains, counties, settlements, and prominent plantations in the colony. Engraved and printed by Thomas Jefferys, geographer to the Prince of Wales, the map was first published late in the summer of 1753. The edition shown here was published in 1755.
