- Thomas Holme
Thomas Holme (1624-1695) was the first Surveyor General of
Pennsylvania .He was born in
Lancashire ,England on November 3, 1624, to ayeoman named George and his wife Alice. He married Sarah Croft in 1649, and soon enlisted in the army under the leadership ofOliver Cromwell , where he attained the rank ofcaptain . It may have been in the army that he gained some experience in surveying. After retiring he was granted more than 4,000 acres (16 km²) inCounty Wexford ,Ireland , which was under the control and colonization of the English at the time.At some point he joined the
Quaker movement in Ireland. There he metWilliam Penn , the founder and namesake of Pennsylvania, who was also a Quaker. In 1682, Penn wrote to Holme from America asking him to come be his surveyor, since his original surveyor, Captain William Crispin, had recently become ill and died on the voyage to America. Shortly after, Holme sailed to America.Holme designed the plan of the city of
Philadelphia and produced the first detailedmap of Pennsylvania, entitled "A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pensilvania in America, Divided Into Countyes, Townships and Lotts...." (published circa 1687). On Penn's arrival in the colony, he appointed Holme as one of his councillors.He held his office of Surveyor-General until his death at the age of 71 in the spring of 1695, in Dublin Township,
Philadelphia County (now the Torresdale section of the city of Philadelphia). In 1863, a memorial was erected at his burial site, in the form of a six-foot-tallmarble obelisk , near where his home is believed to have been located, now part ofPennypack Park .External links
* Biographical essay in Professional Surveyor Magazine::* [http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=50&article=711 part 1] :* [http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=51&article=727 part 2]
* [http://www.lowermerionhistory.org/atlas/1687.html Image of one of Holme's maps from the Lower Merion Historical Society]
* [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/kjohnso1/tholmemap.htm "Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia" (1683), by Thomas Holme]
* [http://virtualology.com/apthomasholme/ Brief biography at virtualology.com]
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