Talk:Surveyor General of Ireland

Hardinge[edit]

Petty and Sheen / Shaen

W H Hardinge says that JOHN Pettie, apparently Sir William's cousin, “was Surveyor-General from the Restoration in 1660 to the 13th of February, 1667, when Sir James Sheen succeeded Pettie.” W. H. Hardinge's papers in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.

Any comments? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.25.109.197 (talk) 16:00, 16 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I read the same. But the only references I've ever seen are actually pointing out that Hardinge's account contradicts other sources. Certainly John Pettie and Thomas Taylor were deputised by William Petty to catalogue townlands from parish poll-tax lists in the 1650s/60s. But I can find no primary (or secondary source) confirming that Pettie (John) was appointed SG. (Only third hand refs to Hardinge's text). Guliolopez (talk) 18:35, 16 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hardinge JSTOR 30079260 p.283 lists "Surveyors General of Crown Lands" which he makes nos 17 to 24 in continuation of his previous lists. This appears to be a sinecure:

1689 Christopher Malone
1695 Richard Stone
1714 William Molesworth (father of Robert Molesworth, 5th Viscount Molesworth)
1761 Robert Rotchfort (son-in-law of Viscount Molesworth)
1798 Isaac Corry
1813 Langford Heyland

In Britain, both the Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases and Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown were separate from the Surveyor of the King's Works. It's not clear to me how many separate offices there were in Ireland, but there seem to have been at least two post-1689, since Hardinge's final list doesn't match ours. (There were also Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, and Surveyor-General of Customs at each location.) jnestorius^(talk) 14:03, 9 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a book dated 1705 that has under Civil LIST, below Auditor General, "Surveyor General [space] Stone" and on the next page under Officers belonging to the Train of Artillery "Engineer, and Surveyor General, Thomas Burgh Esq." jnestorius^(talk) 23:18, 9 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I guess the "Surveyor General of Crown Lands" was a functionary with custody of documents like the Down Survey maps (charging 6s8d in 1824 to trace one), whereas the "Engineer and Surveyor General" was a professional who planned new works. jnestorius^(talk) 11:45, 10 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]