John Rocque

John Rocque, originally known as Jean, was born in approximately 1709 and died in 1762. He was a noted surveyor and cartographer of the early 18th century and moved as a very young child to England with his parents, who were French Huguenot émigrés. Rocque carved out a highly successful career as a surveyor, mapmaker, engraver and mapseller. He also designed gardens and produced engraved plans of several of these, including those at Painshill Park in Surrey and Wilton House near Salisbury. Rocque is mainly known now though for his maps, including a famous one of London, which was the most detailed published up to that time, and his maps of Ireland, including his 1756 map of Dublin. So successful was he that he was appointed Cartographer to the Prince of Wales in 1751.