Add MS 71583

REDRUTH. Map of the manor of Redruth, by Richard Thomas; 1818, based on survey by Robert Ballment in 1794. '3 chains to one inch'. Scale bar of 20 [chains = 165mm.]. Circa 1:2400. Map shows both the town of Redruth and the land principally to the north of it, including Cardew Downs and the mines of Cardew and Wheal Prussia. Fields, buildings and streets are numbered but there is no key. A legend on the left of the map gives the names of the four principal owners of mineral rights (the Hon. Mrs Agar, John Williams, the Rev. Henry Tremayne, and a Mr. Hext) with a key to the colours used to indicate their holdings, and details of a dispute relating to land north of Cardew Downs. Later annotations in pencil in the upper quarter of the map show the enclosure of part of the Down and ownership of fields: ruled lines may indicate lodes. Robert Ballment is listed as active in Cornwall 1791-1794 in P. Eden (ed.), Dictionary of land surveyors and local cartographers of Great Britain and Ireland 1550-1850, (1975-1979), pt. I, p. 28; for details of the career of Richard Thomas, civil engineer and writer as well as surveyor, see Eden, op. cit., pt. III, p. 248, (but note that Thomas does not have an entry in DNB), and F. Boase, Modern English biography, 1892-1921. Purchased from Lesley Aitchison (Catalogue 8, no. 33), Jan. 1995.

Ink, water-colours and pencil on vellum. 835 x 700mm., folded to 240 x 190mm.