1780 1st Map Identifying “Isle of Hope”

This is detail from the earliest map that identifies Isle of Hope. The larger map, by renowned cartographer Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres (1722-1824), shows the Atlantic Coast from St. Catherine’s Island in the south to the May River in the north. DesBarres created The Atlantic Neptune, a four-volume atlas that is considered the most important collection of maps of North America in the eighteenth century.

The detail relating to Isle of Hope shows three different settlements along an unlabelled waterway that is the Skidaway River. These three settlements correspond with the three original settlement on Isle of Hope dating back to 1736, forty-four years before the map was created. The first settlement shown in the south of Isle of Hope corresponds to the land grant for the Jones property at Wormsloe. The second settlement in the middle corresponds to the original property of John Fallowfield, who left the colony in 1742. His property was forfeited and later also given as a land grant to the Jones family. The third settlement corresponds to the original property settled by Henry Parker and given in a land grant to his wife Ann after his death. (Special Thanks to Forrest Willoughby)