Dawson, Robert

Captain Robert Kearsley Dawson (1798-1861) was an English surveyor and cartographer. He trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1816. Between 1819 and 1829 he took part in the triangulation and mapping of Ireland and Scotland under Thomas Colby. In 1830, the Home Secretary Lord Melbourne instructed the boundary commissioner Thomas Drummond to arrange a survey of the boundaries of the proposed Parliamentary Boroughs of England and Wales for the Great Reform Act Bill (1832). This was a major task given that no electoral survey had ever previously been undertaken, and many northern towns had not yet been mapped by the Ordnance Survey. Dawson was chosen to undertake the responsibility. We stock below a good selection of his resulting one-inch and two-inch maps, published in Hansard, which provide a fascinating and detailed historical record of many of our towns and cities, and are notable for being among the earliest British lithographic maps. Later work included his Plans of the most Capital Cities of every Empire (1833-1850).

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Dawson, Robert

SUNDERLAND borough/town/city plan. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. Durham. DAWSON 1837 map

THETFORD town/borough plan for the REFORM ACT. Norfolk. DAWSON 1832 old map

BODMIN borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Lostwithiel. Cornwall. DAWSON 1832 map

LAUNCESTON borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Newport. Cornwall. DAWSON 1832 map

HONITON borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Devon. DAWSON 1832 old antique map

TOTNES borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. River Dart, Devon. DAWSON 1832 old map

EYE town/borough plan. BOUNDARY REVIEW. Oakley Occold. Suffolk. DAWSON 1832 map

RYE borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Liberties of the Town. Sussex DAWSON 1832 map

TAMWORTH borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Tame Anker Rivers. DAWSON 1832 old map

MINEHEAD borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Selworthy. Somerset. DAWSON 1832 map

ST. IVES borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Cornwall. DAWSON 1832 old antique map

BIRMINGHAM borough/town/city plan. REFORM ACT. Edgbaston Aston. DAWSON 1832 map

CHICHESTER borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Fishbourne Donnington. DAWSON 1832 map

COVENTRY borough/town/city plan. REFORM ACT. DAWSON 1832 old antique map chart

ISLE OF WIGHT borough plan. REFORM ACT. Cowes Newport. DAWSON 1832 old map

WALSALL borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Bloxwich Pelshall Rushall DAWSON 1832 map

WARWICK borough/town plan. REFORM ACT. Budbrooke Milverton. DAWSON 1832 map

Westmoreland county map. Divisions boroughs electoral. REFORM ACT. DAWSON 1832

FOLKESTONE borough/town/city plan. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. Kent. DAWSON 1837 map

HAVERFORDWEST borough/town plan. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. Wales. DAWSON 1837 map

HERTFORD borough/town/city plan. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. DAWSON 1837 old map

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