118A. Joshua Archer / T Clerc Smith 1842

The British Magazine or more correctly The British Magazine and Monthly Register of Religious and Ecclesiastical Information, Parochial History, and Documents Respecting the State of the Poor; Progress of Education, &c. began life in 1832 and was published by John Turrill and T Clerc Smith in London with Mr Parker in Oxford, Mr Grant in Cambridge, Mr Wakeman in Dublin and Messrs. Stillies Brothers & Co. in Edinburgh (except for Turrill / Clerc Smith as publisher these were presumably merely the chief distributors). Like most magazines of the times it was produced, at least initially, monthly and would be bound after each half year, a title page being supplied by the publisher. J G and F Rivington joined Turrill & Clerc Smith and their name was first on title pages (they might have bought a majority holding). T Clerc Smith became the sole publisher in January 1841. The main editors during the early years were Hugh James Rose (1795-1838), Samuel Roffey Maitland (1792-1866) and the Rev. John Clarke Crosthwaite. The magazine was not a major success and ceased publication in 1849.¹

A total of nineteen maps are known to have been published with the magazine: there are two maps of England & Wales - with original and the proposed boundaries of the Dioceses; these are dated May 1841 and April 1842 respectively (in half-yearly volumes XIX and XXI respectively). During the period of map publication a further 17 diocese maps were produced, initially at monthly intervals (beginning in January 1841 with London) then approximately quarterly from January 1842 to 1843 when the series was finished incomplete (found in volumes XIX to XXIV) and 11 dioceses were omitted (see list on image page). The map of Exeter diocese, published in September 1842, naturally comprises Devon and Cornwall together (Volume XXII). For the sequence of other county/diocese maps, see table on illustrations page.

The atlas descrbed below is unique and all the maps are unfolded on good quality paper. All other copies are folded once to fit into the monthly parts and then bound in half-yearly volumes as noted above and on the usual magazine quality paper. The volume has no title page and the maps are inserted in alphabetical order (with the two Engalnd & Wales maps first). The binding is an unassuming cloth cover with no title. The owner´s bookplate is very plain: Charles J Bewlay of Carleton Hall, presumably near Penrith in Cumbria. 

Joshua Archer (b. circa 1792) engaved most of the maps for the British Magazine (1841-1844). Archer was copperplate printer, cartographer and a prolific engraver who executed a number of county maps between 1830 and 1845: he engraved a set for Thomas Dugdale’s Curiosities of Great Britain (see next entry); produced an unusual set of maps for William Pinnock (108); and the early maps for Henry Fisher (see 120). In addition, he engraved maps of Scotland for Robert Wilkinson (1814, one of his earliest known works), rail road maps (for Drake, 1838) and London (Smith, 1847).

Joshua Archer was actually a Devon man, born in Barnstaple. He presumably moved to London at an early age and was living there in 1835 when he was declared bankrupt. According to the 1841 census we know he was married to Jane and had one son. A few years later he was in prison for debt (1845). From 1839 to 1861 he was registered at 2 Southampton Terrace, Islington. When he died in 1863 he was probably living with his wife and their two sons, John and Albert, and the latter's wife and children.²

Size: 173 x 225 mm.                                                                                                                                 Scale of English Miles (20 = 33 mm).

EXETER. Imprint: London. Engraved for the BRITISH MAGAZINE, for Sepr 1842 & Published by T. CLERC SMITH, 13, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. (CeOS). Signature: Drawn & Engraved by J. Archer, Pentonville, London (EeOS). Arms of the Bishop (Ac) with Explanation table below. Inset map of SCILLY ISLES (Ce) and REFERENCE table with each deanery (Ed).