James Larken was an engraver working in London, who James Cook used to engrave the charts he had drawn in Newfoundland and Canada. In the 1760s, there was no Hydrographic Office, nor Royal Navy surveyors. If anyone wished to have their work published, he needed to obtain permission from the Admiralty, after which he had to organise the publishing himself. So, Cook employed Larken.
One of Cook’s charts that Larken engraved was A Chart of the West Coast of Newfoundland, Surveyed by Order of Commodore Pallisser, Governor of Newfoundland, Labradore, &c. &c. It was printed and sold by Mount and Page, Jefferys, and Dury in 1768.
As well as undertaking cartographic work, Larken produced stationery, and there is mention of him producing work for Richard Pepys, a distant relation of the diarist, Samuel Pepys.
Larken was born in 1732, at Ashwell in Hertfordshire. He married Mary Barnard on 18 March, 1758, at St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London. They had one son, Samuel, born in 1770. James Larken died in September 1774, leaving a will.1
John Robson
References
- Reference PROB 11/1001/54. Held at The National Archives (TNA), Kew.
Originally published in Cook's Log, page 16, volume 49, number 1 (2026).