Samuel Thornton (1665 - October, 1715) was an English map publisher active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Samuel was the son of John Thornton (1641 - 1708), the second major publisher of the English Pilot. Samuel inherited his father's business and the English Pilot plates in 1708, publishing revised edition of the English Pilot, The Third Book in 1711, and The English Pilot, the Fourth Book. Describing the West-Indian Navigation in 1713. Like his father, Thornton enjoyed a mandate from the British East Indian Company and was their primary chart provider. His name is attached to several charts of the India coast that he added to the English Pilot, The Third Book, 1703. When he died, publication of the English Pilot was taken over by Richard Mount and Thomas Page. They, unlike their predecessors, were not mandated by the British East India Company. More by this mapmaker...

Mount and Page (fl. 1701 - 1760) was a London based firm of religious and maritime publishers that flourished in the 18th century. With the publication of the 1732 English Pilot, the Mount and Page name became well-known worldwide as an imprint of nautical charts. The firm was founded at Tower Hill, London, in 1701 by Richard Mount (1654 - 1722) and his apprentice Thomas Page (1780 - March 15, 1733). Mount had previously been in partnership with his father-in-law William Fisher (1631 - 1691) and inherited the business on the latter's death. Page completed his apprenticeship in 1716. Now fully partnered, Mount and Page subsequently acquired the map plates several defunct British nautical chart publishers, including Greenville Collins, Jeremiah Seller, Charles Price, and John and Samuel Thornton - thus nearly monopolizing the British nautical chart business. The firm consequently received several lucrative government contracts and thereby flourished throughout the 18th century, making the fortunes of both families. Successive generations of Mounts and Pages worked in the business, and the families intermarried. Its staple titles were The English Pilot and Navigatio Britannica by John Barrow. By the 1760s, Richard Mount's grandson John Mount (1725 - 1786) was able to retire to Berkshire where he built the stately mansion, Wasing Place. John's son William (1753 - 1815) was the last to work in the map business, and later generations went into politics. Learn More...