St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565 and today is the oldest continuously-occupied town in the continental United States. As the capital of Florida and the Spanish settlement in closest proximity to England’s American colonies, it was much fought over during the intervening centuries, until at the end of the French and Indian War the 1763 Treaty of Paris transferred it into British hands. Later that year the British reorganized their North American empire, among other things establishing the colony of East Florida with St. Augustine as its capital. The British held the town until 1784, when after the American Revolution another Treaty of Paris returned it to Spanish control.
This is by far the most detailed 18th-century plan of the town, showing the wall and Fort St. Mark (formerly Castillo de San Marcos, built by the Spanish in the 1670s); public edifices including churches and the Governor’s House; and hundreds of private residences, many quite substantial and apparently possessed of fine private gardens.
The plan first appeared in the third edition of William Stork’s Description of East Florida (1769), which promoted settlement in this region newly acquired by England in the French and Indian War. Offered here is a slightly later state from William Faden’s North American Atlas (1777), with the title slightly altered but the image otherwise unchanged.
Phillips, Maps of America, p. 755 (1769 ed.)
Noticeable toning and some dealer markings at lower right, else excellent