John William Gerard de Brahm

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John William Gerard de Brahm
Born1718
Cartographer, engineer and mystic

John William Gerard de Brahm (1718  – c. 1799) was a German

cartographer, engineer[1] and mystic
.

Life

He was born in Koblenz, Germany, the eight child of a court musician employed by the Elector of Trier.[2] He became "Captain Engineer" in the Imperial Army, but after his marriage (to Wilhelmina) emigrated to the British colony of Georgia. In the 1750s they baptized children at the "Independent Congregational Churches" in Stoney Creek and later Charleston, in present-day South Carolina.

In 1754 he was appointed by the British as surveyor general for

mapmaker in the Southern Colonies in the late eighteenth century.[3] He drew up the plans for the New Bermuda settlement in Florida.[4]

Formerly an ally of European colonisation, his contact with

Jacob Boehme. He perceived the eighteenth century carving up of lands for personal glory as a tyranny of reason.[5] He died in Philadelphia
.

Works

  • Letter to the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine, (1771) -- Historian of cartography Louis de Vorsey wrote that this "probably represents the earliest published description of the Gulf Stream as a potentially valuable navigation routeway." [6]: p. 722 
  • Atlantic Pilot, (1772)
  • Time an Apparition of Eternity and Voice of the Everlasting Gospel, (1791-2)
  • Apocalyptic Gnomon Points out Eternity's Divisibility Rated with Time Pointed at by Gnomons Sidereal, (1795).

Legacy

De Brahm, derided by contemporaries, never managed to gain many followers to his religious thought. His criticism of politics and the aggression of nation-states as well as his anti-imperialist position was not well received in the intellectual climate of the early American Republic.[5]: p. 494  According to Plowden Weston, "I know nothing of De Brahm's life; but he lived within memory of persons now alive, much addicted to alchemy, and wearing a long beard."[6]: p. 720 

References

  1. ^ Toomey, Michael. "JOHN WILLIAM GERARD DE BRAHM". The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  2. ^ Louis De Vorsey, Pioneer charting of the gulf stream: The contributions of Benjamin Franklin and William Gerard de Brahm, 1976, Imago Mundi 28(1), pp 105-120.
  3. ^ Georgia land surveying history and law, Farris W. Cradle, University of Georgia Press, 1991
  4. ^ Distinct from Fromajadas and Indigo: The Minorcan Colony in Florida By Kenneth Henry Beeson
  5. ^
    S2CID 143897922
    .
  6. ^
    doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-8090-0_65
    .
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