A Plan of the strategically important area of Brooklyn, made c1780 by Charles Blaskowitz as part of a larger survey of the New York area. The Plan is extremely detailed and it lays-out the topography of Brooklyn very clearly and was intended to provide a detailed view of the area for use in the making of a larger survey of the whole of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island (See Heritage Charts (see Heritage Charts A219a & A219b).
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Description
The plan is attributed and signed on the verso by Charles Blaskowitz. As a snap-shot in time the plan shows all of the roads, houses, settlements, rivers, wet-lands, breweries, ferry points and hills that one might expect to see from a work of Blaskowitz's. It also shows military defence positions such as forts and redoubts around Brooklyn Heights. Many of the American defences constructed in 1766 by the Americans had been dismantled b the British by 1780.
An interesting, and important detail contained within this plan are the columns of troops located by the Road to Newtown on the far right of the plan. The troops in question likely include the Queen's Rangers, Dragoons, Regulars and artillery. No other troop positions or encampments are included. There is no labelling of places, settlements or towns. Mills and other topographical features are included, almost as though the purpose of the plan was simply to provide a ground-plan for a later or subsequent map or plan.
Significantly, this is very much in-line with the style of the later 1782 British Headquarters Map (see A219a & A219b). According to a pencil annotation on the bottom right of the plan it is drawn to a scale of 4000 feet to an inch which equates to about three quarters of a mile to the inch.
Of note, the plan has a genuine topographic relationship to George Sproule's retrospective 1781 'Map of the Environs of Brooklyn..'[1] which is based on a survey he had made in 1776 showing the Positions of the Rebel Lines and Defences of the 27th August. This raises the question of whether Blaskowitz and Sproule worked on that same, initial survey together, as they had done so many times before the war had started?
Blaskowitz' beautiful plan needs to be viewed in the context of two other Maps in the Heritage Charts collection: A219a and A219b and also MR1-590 [2], held in the National Archives Kew, UK. See also Heritage Charts Research Locker located on the website where an article discussing this connection is due to be published on the Heritage Charts Research Locker shortly. The full map will also be published on the Heritage Charts website to co-incide with the article.
[1]. "A plan of the environs of Brooklyn showing the position of the rebel lines and defences on the 27th of August 1776.". https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wcl1ic/x-8657/wcl008728. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 23, 2023.
[2]. MR 1/590. New York: New York (now in the United States of America). Fragment of a sketch map of Manhattan island and the surrounding mainland, showing relief. Compass indicator. A pencilled addition gives the scale: 1 inch to 800 feet. Mounted on a larger sheet.
Charles Blaskowitz
A Plan of the strategically important area of Brooklyn, made c1780 by Charles Blaskowitz as part of a larger survey of the New York area. The Plan is extremely detailed and it lays-out the topography of Brooklyn very clearly and was intended to provide a detailed view of the area for use in the making of a larger survey of the whole of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island (See Heritage Charts (see Heritage Charts A219a & A219b).
A218