Map of Passamaquoddy and Machias by Benjamin R. Jones
The Passamaquoddy portion of this map formed the frontispiece of William H. Kilby's "Eastport and Passamaquoddy: A Collection of Historical and Biographical Sketches", published by Oliver E. Shead and Company, Eastport, 1888. W.H. Kilby introduced it with the following preface, under a reproduction of the title cartouche: The above is a reproduction of the title of a map published in 1810 by Benjamin R. Jones, a well-known surveyor of the period, the Passamaquoddy section of which is also reproduced on the next page. At that time, Eastport and Calais were the only incorporated towns in the Eastern part of Washington County, though Robbinston and Dennysville were called by the names they afterwards received. Lubec was still a part of Eastport, and generally known as “the main,” and the section of Dennysville incorporated 22 years later as Pembroke was then Pennamaquan. Whiting was called Orangetown, and Perry, Edmunds and Trescott were known by their plantation numbers, One, Nine, and Ten. In 1824 the plate was revised and a new edition published Benjamin Richards Jones was a direct descendent in the sixth generation from John Alden and his wife Pricilla, famous in the history and legendary poetry of Massachusetts. He was the son of Samuel Jones, of Milton, Mass., and his wife Mary, daughter of Abigail (Thayer) Richards, who was the daughter of Sarah (Bass) Thayer, who was the daughter of Ruth (Alden) Bass, who was the daughter of John and Pricilla. Our former townsmen, Aaron Hayden and Joseph M. Livermore, senators from Washington County, and Thomas Jones, town representative, were of the same stock, and Edward E. Shead and Jesse G. Shead, and publishers of this volume, are also descendants of the fair Puritan and John, whom she persuaded to speak for himself. Mr. Jones came with his father’s family among the early settlers of Robbinston, lived a while in Eastport where he served as town clerk in 1803 and 1804, and then settled at Dennys River where, as a land surveyor, teacher, and magistrate, as well as in the preparation of this map, he made good the expectation of a distinguished woman who knew him in childhood. A portion of his boyhood was spent in the Cranch family at Quincy. Mrs. Richard Cranch was a sister of Mrs. John Adams, wife of the second President of the United States; and, in a letter to a friend about the time of the appearance of the map, Mrs. Adams wrote: “I understand that Benjamin Jones has published a map of Passamaquoddy. I always felt sure that boy would do something creditable to himself.”
Photos for Map
