People, Place and Power – The Grand Jury System in Ireland

26 Larkin’s map of Galway (Fig. 8) and William Bald’s map of Mayo (1830) are the finest examples of grand jury maps. Both are more than three metres wide and, like the others, were published by London’s most prestigious houses. Once Ordnance Survey maps became available in the 1830s, however, the era of the county map passed, as grand juries, unable to justify the continued production of lavish county maps, invested in the higher quality charts. At the spring 1837 assizes in County Donegal, for example, the grand jury approved the purchase of two sets of the new Ordnance Survey maps costing £344:15, ‘one made up in baronies on spring rollers for the Grand Jury Room’ and ‘one other of each barony in portable cases’ (Fig. 9). These ordnance survey maps remain in the custody of Donegal County Library today. Although the Ordnance Survey removed the reason for county surveys, we are left with a wonderful cartographic record of pre-Famine Ireland, produced by world-class surveyors, engravers and map publishers. Fig. 9. Donegal Grand Jury’s purchase of 6-inch OS maps, 1837. Donegal County Archive, GJ/1/7.