Daniel Augustus Beaufort
1739-1821, Irish Cartographer
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The Irish cartographer Daniel Augustus Beaufort, although of London birth, was descended from Huguenots who fled France after the terrible St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, the family eventually settling in Ireland having followed a circuitous route through Europe over a century and a half.
A man of many talents, Beaufort who was the Church of Ireland Rector of Navan, Co. Meath, having succeeded his father in 1765, was also one of the founder or 'foundation' members of the Royal Irish Academy, and a prominent member of the Dublin Society. His other interests extended to travel-journal writing, architecture and of course cartography.
Beaufort's Maps
Although he only produced three maps, he illustrates, according to the eminent historical geographer, J.H.Andrews in his book, Shapes of Ireland, "the cartographic principle that high quality and low productivity go together."
These maps, the monumental, 'A Civil and Ecclesiastical Map of Ireland', (1792); an untitled map of Ireland's river systems (1792), which was included in his 'Memoir of a Map of Ireland', and was the first all-Ireland thematic map; and the third map, his map of the 'Diocese of Meath',(1797), were produced by a man who could only be described as a geographical perfectionist, a man who aspired to higher cartographic standards. His approach, in his own words, "was to set about my work, as if no general map of Ireland had been extant."
He achieved a majority of his objectives with the 'Civil and Ecclesiastical Map', and produced a complex and striking map with many innovations, including the first use of hachures, (closely spaced lines which depicted relief), on a national map, beating the famous Alexander Taylor by just a year.
The map was a success and went to reprint in 1793 and 1794 with minor alterations. It seems that a total of 2000 maps were printed, which at a post subscription price of 16 shillings for a coloured copy, and £1 -3 shillings if cased, would not have made him a wealthy man.
He sold his plates and and his unexpired copyright to Faden in September of 1794, and Faden and his successor James Wyld produced a number of editions well into the age of the railway and right up until the advent of the Ordnance Survey. The reason for the map's longevity was aptly summed up by John Wilson Croker, secretary to the admiralty, when he admitted that he thought Beaufort's map to be "the most accurate we have."
Book: Memoir of a Map of Ireland
Beaufort wrote a detailed book on his endeavours during the production of the 'Civil and Ecclesiactical' map. His 'Memoir of a Map of Ireland', was published at the same time as the map, it described his experiences and thoughts during the work, alongside the methods, materials and techniques employed in the map's production, and included the aforementioned thematic map with the rivers and mountains.
The book is now a sought after collectable in its own right and a valuable record of one man's ambitious pursuit of of cartographic excellence and higher standards in a time of immense change.
Beaufort's Children
Mention must be given here of Beaufort's children, some of whom found fame in their own right. Of his two sons and three daughters, his daughter Frances (1769-1865) married R.L.Edgeworth and helped edit Maria Edgeworth's letters for publication. It was Frances who designed the title piece for the Civil and Ecclesiastical Map. His daughter Henrietta (1778-1865) was a childern's book writer, and Louisa wrote on architecture and entomology.
It was however, his son Francis Beaufort (1744-1857), later to become Sir Francis, who was the most famous.
He was a noted surveyor and hydrographer with a distinguished naval career. Francis, who at one time was Captain Beaufort of the Admiralty, was the person who arranged for Charles Darwin to be the ships' naturalist on board the 'Beagle' during that famous and eventful voyage.
It is sometimes forgotten today that the 'Beagle's' prime mission on that voyage was essentially that of surveying and charting little known straits and coasts for navigation purposes, but that side of the voyage was shadowed by the findings and discoveries of Darwin over time.
Francis Beaufort is of course best known as the creator of the Beaufort Wind Scale, a 13 point scale of wind strength measurement, which is still in use today
Image(s): Detail from a 19th century portrait of Francis Beaufort at the UK National Maritime Museum
