James Whitelaw – #1 Mapmaker

James Whitelaw, Vermont’s most important early mapmaker, was born in Scotland in 1748. He emigrated to North America at the age of 25, arriving in Ryegate, Vermont in 1773. Whitelaw was a skilled land surveyor, and as such was quite valuable in the new territory. (When James arrived here it was not yet “Vermont”). He was made a “deputy survey0r” under Surveyor General Ira Allen, and laid out (mapped on the ground) a series of towns in the Northeast Kingdom. He rose to the Surveyor General’s job in 1784, a position he held for 19 years.
During his tenure he produced “A Correct Map of the State of Vermont” (1796), the magnificently detailed map of the state. The word “Correct” in the title meant a lot – as Vermont’s political boundaries were a mess in the early years. Whitelaw’s surveying had sorted out many of the confusing land claims and this map presented a reasonably tidy state ready to grow. Compare this Vermont map with the 1789 Blodget and 1779 Sauthier maps and you will see at a glance the order which Whitelaw was helping to impose on the Green Mountain state.
James Whitelaw, skilled though he was, could not straighten out all lines – his map clearly shows several unresolved conflicts, such as ,,,,,,,,,,