Map 7: The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1639
William Wood (ca. 1580-1639) from New England Prospect London, [1634] 1639 Woodcut. 18 x 30 cm About this Map Wood's map was the first printed one by a New England resident and the first to name the town of Boston in its present location… [ more ]
About this Map Wood's map was the first printed one by a New England resident and the first to name the town of Boston in its present location. Wood had arrived in Massachusetts in 1629 at the age of twenty-three and had helped found the town of Lynn. He had returned to England in 1633 to publish his New England Prospect, which was intended to encourage settlement of southern New England. Wood's map, which covers the coast from the"Pascataque" (Piscataqua) River in the north to Narragansett Bay in the south, names a number of towns and features, many of them for the first time -- Sagus (Saugus), Nahant, Meadford (Medford), WaterTowne, Newtown (Cambridge), Charlestowne, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchestr. The area north of Boston is much more densely settled than the area south of it, probably because the difficulty of navigating the shoals in Nantucket Sound had discouraged settlement in that area.
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