Herman Moll (1654?-1732)
Perhaps England’s greatest early 18th century map publisher, Herman Moll was a Dutch native who moved to London to work as an engraver circa 1680. Moll was one of the first mapmakers to use London as the prime meridian for longitude. The Crown used his “Map of North America” and his 1715 “A New and Exact Map of the Dominions of the King of Great Britain on ye Continent of North America” (or “Beaver Map”) to counter French claims to territory in North America. His maps of the world, as well as those of Europe and the British Isles were of uniformly high quality and well recieved by mariners and officials of the day. Moll died in 1732.