Colonial Despatches

John Arrowsmith was a British cartographer famous for his maps of the world. Many explorers used Arrowsmith's maps to improve their own.1 In one correspondence to Pakington, Douglas refers to the inaccuracy of Arrowsmith's map of Vancouver Island, and in a later correspondence to Newcastle he includes Arrowsmiths improved map of Vancouver's Island. Mount Arrowsmith on Vancouver Island is named after John and his uncle, Aaron Arrowsmith.2

Arrowsmith was born in 1790 in Durham, England. He travelled to London in 1810 to learn map-making from his uncle Aaron Arrowsmith, and in 1821 they published a map of North America together.3 In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society,4 and, in 1863, he received the society’s gold medal.5 Arrowsmith retired in 1861, and died twelve years later on May 2, 1873.6

• 1. Elizabeth Baigent, Arrowsmith, John, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online.
• 2. Captain John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 24.
• 3. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 404.
• 4. Elizabeth Baigent, Arrowsmith, John, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online.
• 5. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 404.
• 6. Elizabeth Baigent, Arrowsmith, John, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online.