Other 18th-/19th-century conflicts
Maps, views and documents from 19 wars
Most of the conflicts in this section are covered by just one, or only a few, items but the Jacobite Wars are more substantially represented. In particular, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745–6 includes manuscript mapping that was made during the course of the march of the royal army under William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721–65), when he reached Scotland, having temporarily left the Low Countries where he had been fighting in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–8). Surveys of the sites of his encampments on his way to Inverness, and plans of the Battles of Prestonpans, Falkirk and Culloden, are unique to this collection. More mapping relating to these two rebellions can be found in George III’s topographical collection in the British Library.
In other conflicts, the number of items, for example, covering parts of India, reflects the military engagements of the East India Company on behalf of the Crown and includes mapping by the Chief Engineers. The Great Northern War (1700–21) was fought between a Russian-led coalition and Sweden and her allies, in which Britain fought on both sides at different times. It ranged over northern, central and eastern Europe and is represented by 18 items, including contemporary manuscript maps. The Siege of Gibraltar in 1727 is covered by five maps, and the First Silesian War (1741) is represented by ten mostly printed maps and a charming set of 16 plans on vellum of encampments of the Austrian army in remote locations in Czech Silesia, now the western part of the Czech Republic.
Only two items represent the War of the Regulation (c.1765–71), which was a preliminary conflict to the American War of Independence (1775–83), but they are important manuscripts, drawn by Claude Joseph Sauthier (1736–1802), who was working in North Carolina with Governor William Tryon (1725–88) at the time that the Battle of Alamance (16 May 1771) took place. Sauthier’s plan of the battle, and what appears to be his tabulation of the strength of the Provincial Army, signed by Tryon, are among the incunabula of the maps and documents of the American War of Independence. Finally, the War of 1812, fought between the United States of America and Great Britain, is illustrated by 15 contemporary prints of the naval engagements.
