Andrew Ellicott Family History:Information about Andrew Ellicott
Andrew Ellicott (b. January 24, 1754, d. August 29, 1820)
Andrew Ellicott |
Andrew Ellicott (son of Joseph Ellicott and Judith Bleaker) was born January 24, 1754 in Solebury Twp, Bucks Co, PA, and died August 29, 1820 in West Point Military Academy, NY.He married Sarah Brown on 1775.
Notes for Andrew Ellicott:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/exhibits/lewis_clark/ch4-28.html
ANDREW ELLICOTT.
“Map of the Mississippi River.”
In The Journal of Andrew Ellicott. Philadelphia, 1803.
Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was born in Pennsylvania and reared in Ellicott Mills, Maryland, which was founded by his father. Ellicott was the foremost surveyor of his day. He conducted numerous surveys to establish state and territorial boundaries, including the boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions in Florida. He also surveyed the site for the nation’s capital at Washington, D.C. Ellicott elevated American surveying and cartography to a new level of precision and accuracy.
The Journal of Andrew Ellicott (1803) includes a map of the mouth of the Mississippi River, two maps of the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio River, and two maps of the Ohio. In addition, Ellicott mapped the upper Mississippi River to the Great Lakes and located the position of the mouth of the Missouri River quite accurately. An appendix to the Journal contains many examples of his measurements, astronomical observations, and detailed calculations from his surveys in Florida and along the Mississippi River.The Journal, which was published at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, is also noteworthy because Ellicott presents an argument for the United States’s acquisition of Louisiana as a way to keep the western states in the Union.
When Albert Gallatin commissioned Nicholas King to produce a new map of North America for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, he instructed the mapmaker to incorporate Ellicott’s work on the Mississippi River. In planning the expedition to the West, Thomas Jefferson turned to Ellicott for advice. Jefferson knew that no other American had more knowledge or experience than Ellicott in making astronomical and field observations under trying conditions. Ellicott supplied Jefferson with a list of the equipment that he thought should be taken on the expedition. He also instructed Meriwether Lewis in the use of the sextant and octant, regulated Lewis’s chronometer, and devised a new type of artificial horizon for making field observations on the expedition.
http://www.warmuseum.net/revolutionarywarhall/ANDREWELLICOTT.COM/
Andrew Ellicott
1754-1820
Suryeyor who complete L'Enfant's plan for Washington DC
ELLICOTT, Andrew, civil engineer, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 24 January 1754; died in West Point, New York, 29 August 1820. His father and uncle, who were Quakers, purchased a large tract of wild land on the Patapsco River in 1770, and in 1774 founded the town of Ellicott's Mills, now Ellicott City, where Andrew passed his youth in the study of science and practical mechanics. His scientific attainments soon attracted attention, and he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Washington, Franklin, and Rittenhouse. He was appointed commissioner at various times for marking the boundaries of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, and about 1785 removed to Baltimore, where he was elected to the legislature. He was selected by Washington in 1789 to survey the land lying between Pennsylvania and Lake Erie, and during that year he made the first accurate measurement of the Niagara River from lake to lake, with the height of the falls and the descent of the rapids.
In 1790 he was employed by the government to survey and lay out the City of Washington, and in 1792 was made surveyor general of the United States. He superintended the construction of Fort Erie, at Presque Isle, now Erie. Pennsylvania, in 1795, and was employed in laying out the towns of Erie, Warren, and Franklin. Washington appointed him in 1796 as U. S. commissioner under the treaty of San Lorenzo el Real, to determine the boundary separating the United States from the Spanish possessions on the south. The results of this service, which embraced a period of nearly five years, appear in his " Journal" (Philadelphia, 1803). Upon its completion he was appointed by Governor McKean, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the state hind office, but resigned in 1808, and in 1812 became professor of mathematics at West Point, where he remained till his death.
He went to Montreal in 1817, by order of the government, to make astronomical observations for carrying into effect some of the articles of the Treaty of Ghent. He was an active member of the American philosophical society, contributed to its transactions, and corresponded with many of the learned societies of Europe. With the exception of his "Journal" and a few other writings, his works are still in manuscript.
His brother, Joseph Ellicott, engineer, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1 November 1760; died in Batavia, New York, 19 August 1826, received a common school education, and subsequently studied surveying and engineering, He was engaged as all assistant to his brother Andrew in the survey and plotting of the City of Washington, and in running the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania. In 1797 Mr. Ellicott was employed by the Holland hind company to survey the tract in western New York known as the "Holland purchase," and, on the completion of the survey in 1800, was appointed local agent of the company, with headquarters at Batavia, New York, which he had located, and toward whose early development he contributed largely.
The company among the first to recognize the possibility of building a great City at the foot of Lake Erie on the lands owned Mr. Ellicott that he represented. His influence was largely used not only in promoting settlements in the vicinity of the present City of Buffalo, but also in assisting in its growth and development. Mr. Ellicott has justly been called the "Founder of Buffalo." He surveyed and laid out the City on its original plan. He was a zealous advocate of the projected Erie Canal, and corresponded with Governor De Witt Clinton concerning the project. He opposed Clinton's plan of sending to England for engineers, insisting that there was abundant home talent for the work, and succeeded in convincing the governor that he was right. He served for some time as canal commissioner, but held no other public office. After serving the Holland land company twenty years, during which time most of the vast tract of land owned by it in western New York was disposed of to actual settlers, Mr. Ellicott retired from active pursuits.
More About Andrew Ellicott and Sarah Brown:
Marriage: 1775
Children of Andrew Ellicott and Sarah Brown are:
- +Andrew J. Ellicott, b. November 01, 1776, d. September 07, 1839, Shelby, NY later moved to Batavia, NY.
- George Ellicott, d. March 17, 1785.
- Jane J. Ellicott, b. June 25, 1778.
- Mary Ellicott.
- Letitia M. Ellicott.
- Joseph Ellicott.
- Sarah Ellicott.
- Ann E. Ellicott.
- Rachel B. Ellicott.
- John B. Ellicott.