A Late Seventeenth-Century Plan of York

A manuscript plan of York, preserved in the city library, was made by Captain James Archer. A similar plan at Stafford, illustrating reports on York's defences by Sir Christopher Musgrave, is signed by Jacob Richards. The relationship between these plans is examined. Archer's career is traced from the State Papers and other sources, showing that he served the Duke of Ormond, made surveys in the Channel Isles, worked on Kinsale fort, and died in c. 1680. It is suggested that the plan at York was drawn in c. 1673, used by Musgrave in 1682, and copied by Richards in 1685.