William Herbert (November 29, 1718 – March 18, 1795) was a British map seller, book seller, publisher, and surveyor based in London in the second half of the 18th century. Herbert was born in London, the son of a dyer and hosier of Gravel Lane. He signed on to the East India company in 1738 as a purser's clerk, traveling in the process to the colonies in India. He returned to London in about 1745, having amassed a considerable collection of manuscript plans and charts of East India ports. Recognizing their commercial value he set up business as a map and print seller on London Bridge in 1748. The premises of this business were sadly destroyed while Herbed watched the April 11, 1759 London Fire. He published a number of maps as well as the important New Directory for the East Indies. Much of his most important cartographic work seem to be associated with William Nichelson, who traveled to the East Indies in the 1750s and 60s mapping ports on behalf of the EOC. He retired in 1776 in reasonable comfort. His publications continued to be updated and re-published by his successors, among the Samuel Dunn and Henry Gregory. More by this mapmaker...

John Brohier (fl. 1746 - 1760) was a British sailor, artilleryman, engineer, fraud, and fugitive from justice. The earliest record of Brohier is a 1746 manuscript chart of the harbor of Ambodifotatra on the island of Île Sainte-Marie, Madagascar. The chart references the anchorages used by the ship Winchelsea; this was most likely the Indiaman Winchelsea, which sailed for the EIC from 1742 until its wreck in April 1749 near Fort St. David (Bombay.) Apart from this chart, the name John Brohier first appears in East India Company dispatches - also, from Fort St. David - as a mariner, being permitted to reside in India beginning in January 1750. The next appearance of John Brohier is a request for appointment of a Lieutenant John Brohier, artilleryman, as assistant to Benjamin Robins, the Engineer General of the East India Company. No sooner was this request tendered than Robins died, and Brohier was appointed to carry out Robins' work on Fort St. George. From his death-bed, Robins had advised the Council, 'The Works here will be finished by Mr. Brohier, who has full instructions from me… He is certainly the properest Person for that Work I know and I recommend him as such. He has hitherto behaved, I believe, with great integrity.' Brohier went on to become Engineer-in-charge of all British territory in India, successfully improving the defenses of Fort St. David, Fort William, and Fort St. George over the course of the 1750s. In 1760, authorities in Calcutta reported that 'great Frauds (had been committed) in carrying out the new Works…' Brohier stood accused of having diverted a large amount of the funds allotted to the construction into his pockets. Arrested but then paroled, Brohier fled from Calcutta to Sri Lanka, which at the time was Dutch territory. It is supposed that he settled there, as he vanishes from the record. Learn More...

John Spilsbury (1739 – 1769) was a British cartographer, engraver, and bookseller. He is often credited as the inventor of the jigsaw puzzle. He apprenticed to Thomas Jefferys, the Royal Geographer to King George III. Spilsbury engraved maps for Andrew Dury and a number of charts for William Herbert. Spilsbury began producing dissected maps in 1766 as an educational tool to teach geography, pasting maps down to a board and then cutting them in pieces with a jigsaw. Learn More...