Military Maps and the Duke of Cumberland

The majority of these maps were collected by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721 – 65), second son of George II, who led British and allied armies on the Continent, and Hanoverian forces against the Jacobites at home. The significant collection of military maps and plans which he formed is dominated by land campaigns during the period when he was commanding the army, and includes important documents from the suppression of the 1745 – 46 Jacobite rising, inevitably seen from the point of view of the victor rather than the vanquished. On the Duke’s death, his maps were inherited by George III, and form the basis of the King’s Military Map Collection which remains at Windsor.

Cumberland’s staff included surveyors, who mapped territory and recorded battles, and who would have been equipped with the sort of mathematical instruments sold by Mary Harris in 1745. Among the draughtsmen was Schultz, known only by his surname. In summer 1745, Schultz climbed the crossing tower of the church at Dieghem, where the army was based, and took an elegant fish-eye panorama of the surrounding territory. In Britain, in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745 – 6, Colonel David Watson, a military engineer, suggested that a full survey of the Highlands be undertaken: he believed that ignorance of the terrain was hampering attempts to suppress support for the Jacobites. The team on the initial survey included Paul Sandby, who made an informal chalk sketch of his employer