John William Gerard de Brahm
| John William Gerard de Brahm | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1718 Koblenz |
| Died | c.1799 Philadelphia |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Cartographer, engineer and mystic |
John William Gerard de Brahm (1718–c.1799) was a German cartographer, engineer[1] and mystic.
He was born in Koblenz, the eighth child of a court musician employed by the Elector of Trier.[2] He became "Captain Engineer" in the Imperial Army, but after his marriage (to Wilhelmina) emigrated to the British colony of Georgia. In the 1750s they baptized children at the "Independent Congregational Churches" in Stoney Creek and later Charleston, in present-day South Carolina.
In 1754 he was appointed by the British as surveyor general for Georgia Colony. In August 1756 he traveled to the Cherokee Overhill country on the banks of the Little Tennessee River as the engineer constructing Fort Loudoun. He is said to have been the most prolific mapmaker in the Southern Colonies in the late eighteenth century.[3] Formerly an ally of European colonisation, his contact with American Indians led him to despise European imperialism as a sin which would ultimately bring destruction to the world. He believed that the American Indians had been corrupted by the immorality of traders and their attempts to civilise them.[4] He was imprisoned in France by the American Revolutionary government, accused of being loyal to the British cause. From 1778 he resided in Britain; making a brief visit to his German homeland before settling in Philadelphia in 1791 where he converted to Quakerism. There his writings on Cosmography were inspired by the ideas of an earlier German mystic, Jacob Boehme. He perceived the eighteenth century carving up of lands for personal glory as a tyranny of reason.[5] He died in Philadelphia.
Contents
Works
- Atlantic Pilot, (1772)
- Time an Apparition of Eternity and Voice of the Everlasting Gospel, (1791-2)
- Apocalyptic Gnomon Points out Eternity's Divisibility Rated with Time Pointed at by Gnomons Sidereal, (1795)
Legacy
De Brahm, derided by contemporaries, never managed to gain many followers to his religious thought. His criticism of dynastic politics and the aggression of nation-states as well as his anti-imperialist position was not well received in the intellectual climate of the early American Republic.
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Louis De Vorsey, Pioneer charting of the gulf stream: The contributions of Benjamin Franklin and William Gerard de Brahm, 1976, Imago Mundi 28(1), pp 105-120.
- ↑ Georgia land surveying history and law, Farris W. Cradle, University of Georgia Press, 1991
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 18th-century German writers
- German cartographers
- American cartographers
- German Quakers
- Converts to Quakerism
- German emigrants to the United States
- People from Koblenz
- 1718 births
- 1799 deaths
- 18th-century Quakers
- People of Georgia (British colony)
- German male writers
