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Piece
1 item extracted from CO 1/1. North Carolina. 'A description of the land of Virginia'...
Catalogue reference: MPG 1/584
What’s it about?
This record is about the 1 item extracted from CO 1/1. North Carolina. 'A description of the land of Virginia'... dating from [c1585] in the series Public Record Office: Maps and plans extracted to flat storage from various series.... It is held at The National Archives, Kew.
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Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- MPG 1/584
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Date (When the record was created)
- [c1585]
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Description (What the record is about)
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1 item extracted from CO 1/1. North Carolina. 'A description of the land of Virginia' [endorsement]. Sketch map of the area between Albermarle and Pamlico sounds, Mattamuskeet Lake, King's (now Roanoke) Island, with unidentified islands and shoals; place-names; observations about fish and depth of water. This map was for a long time associated with a letter of Captain John Smith of 1618. It was probably sent to England early in September, 1585, on the Roebuck or the Elizabeth : it may be the map mentioned in Ralph Lane's letter to Walsingham of 8 September 1585; and if so, it is almost certainly the earliest English map of North America based on direct observation, compiled during the journeys of July-September 1585, in which Harriot and White took part. The handwriting on the map bears some resemblance to that of White, but it is not possible to assign a definite authorship. It has also been argued that the map illustrates Lane's letter of 12 August 1585, as it mentions places, sand bars and depths of water that are features of the map.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Dimensions (The size of the record)
- 40 cm x 30.5 cm
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Closure status (Whether the record is ‘open’ (available to the public) or ‘closed’ (not available due to a legal exemption))
- Open Document, Open Description
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- Maps and Plans in the Public Record Office, II: America and West Indies, no 2726. Described in William P Cumming, The South East in Early Maps (Princeton N J 1958) entry 6, and reproduced in 2nd edition (Chapel Hill 1962) and 3rd edition (edited L de Vorsey, Chapel Hill and London 1998), where there is an account of the investigations of Professor D B Quinn. Also reproduced in Alexander Brown, The Genesis of the United States, Boston, 1890, vol. 2, pp 596 and 597 (who accepts the connection with John Smith's letter to Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam of 1618), and in D B Quinn, The Roanoke Voyages (Hakluyt Society, Second Series, 104), London, 1955, vol. 1, opp. p. 215, who identified the map as 'a rough note of the mapping done by White and Hariot in the first phases of discovery'. See also Raleigh & Roanoke (catalogue of British Library exhibition, March-June 1985), p. 53, no. 48.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C3981273/
Series information
MPG 1
Public Record Office: Maps and plans extracted to flat storage from various series...
See the series level description for more information about this record.
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
2,023 records
Within the department: MPG
Maps and plans extracted to flat storage from records of the Colonial Office
2,023 records
Within the series: MPG 1
Public Record Office: Maps and plans extracted to flat storage from various series...
You are currently looking at the piece: MPG 1/584
1 item extracted from CO 1/1. North Carolina. 'A description of the land of Virginia'...
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