Siege of Limerick, 1691

an EXACT · SURVEY / and / GROUND · PLOTT / of / LIMERICK / and / the Adjacent / PLACES

A map of the siege between August and 3 October 1691 of Jacobite-held Limerick under Patrick Sarsfield (c.1660-93) by Williamite forces, commanded by General Godert de Ginkell, later 1st Earl of Athlone (1630-1703), resulting in the capitulation of the town in October. Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland (1688-91), part of the Nine Years War (1688-97). Oriented with north to top (compass rose).

The author of this map, Jean de Bodt, was born in Paris of Huguenot parents. Training as an architect, he left France after the Treaty of Fontainebleu and joined the party of William III of Orange. Bodt came with William III (now King of England) to London in 1688 and was made Captain in the Artillery and is listed as John Bodt, with a rank of ‘Engineer’ in 1698. He saw service in Ireland during 1690-91 and was probably attached to General Ginkell's forces when he made this map which is possibly the earliest large-scale survey for this area. Attention has been paid, in particular, to representing the relative levels of the terrain and its passability: the extensive marshlands (impassable), together with their drainage ditches and streams (outlined in blue ink) are indicated, together with other types of landuse: arable and rough pasture, the road network.

Bodt (listed as ‘Bott’) served in the Flanders train at the Battles of Steinkirk (1692) and Landen (1693) and eventually resigned from the Engineers in 1699 and went on to Berlin, where he was responsible for the construction of the Arsenal. In 1728 he joined the Saxon army, becoming an Infantry General in 1741 and founding the Dresden Engineers Academy in 1742. All the while he had been practising as an architect in the Baroque style.

Additional text: [bottom left, a key, A, a-f, h, i, k, m-n, to the English town and its principal buildings; B, o-r, to t he Irish Town and its main buildings; C-I, K-T, V, X, Y, to the forts, batteries, redoubts and bridges.]

For further reading, see:
T.W.J. Conolly, R.E., Roll of officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. From 1660-1898. Compiled from the MS rolls of the late Captain T. W. J. Conolly, R. E., and brought up to date in the office of the R. E. Institute, Chatham. Edited by Captain R. F. Edwards, R. E. Chatham, 1898.
W. Porter, The history of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1951 (reprint), vol.1, pp.55, 61.
H.-J. Kuke, Jean de Bodt 1670–1745. Architekt und Ingenieur im Zeitalter des Barock, Worms, 2002.

Condition: two fold lines; face of the map formerly heavily cracked with numerous abrasions; acid from the ink had eaten through the paper and the linen backing; heavily discoloured and browned. Verso: some old repairs made with paper; remnants of paper remain across the whole verso, suggesting that the linen-backed map was formerly laid down on paper.