I like maps, especially historical maps.
One of my favorites was a map of Honolulu drawn by Marcus Douglas Monsarrat, Hawaii-born surveyor. He prepared it in 1897.
I like it, not only because it represents the nature of the City at that time, but, more importantly, he also depicts homes and buildings, and includes the names of the owners.
Born on March 29, 1857, on his paternal side Monsarrat is descended from Nicholas Monsarrat, who went to Dublin, Ireland, in 1755 from France.
His father, MC Monsarrat resided in Canada before coming to Hawaii, having been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, June 18, 1844, and in the Islands he served as deputy collector of customs, later with Dowsett & Compauy, lumber dealers, which subsequently became SG Wilder & Company.
His father (Marcus Cumming Monsarrat became a bit notorious in the Islands. Prince Lot had invited Marcus Monsarrat, who lived nearby, as a guest at a dinner party on January 15, 1857. When dinner was over, Monsarrat bid his goodbye and left. …
Soon after, one of Lot’s servants said the tall, handsome Monsarrat was in Victoria Kamāmalu’s bedroom. Prince Lot burst into Victoria Kamāmalu’s quarters and discovered her in compromising circumstances with his guest Marcus Monsarrat (he was ‘arranging his pantaloons.’) He was banished from the Islands.
The incident was embarrassing to the court because efforts were underway to arrange a marriage between Victoria Kamāmalu and Kalākaua; these plans were quickly aborted. Monsarrat returned; he died in Honolulu on October 18, 1871. Some suggest Monsarrat Street near Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) is named for Monsarrat; others say it is for his son, James Melville Monsarrat, an attorney and Judge.
Through his mother Marcus Douglas Monsarrat is a descendant of Captain Samuel James Dowsett, a native of Rochester, Kent, England, and a commander in His Majesty’s Colonial Service, who, as owner and master of the brig “Wellington,” came to Hawaii from Sydney July 27, 1828, and established his family in Honolulu. (Nellist)
Monsarrat studied at O‘ahu College (now Punahou School, 1866-70 and 1872-73) and St Alban’s (now Iolani School, 1870-71). His first employment was with James Dowsett.
Monsarrat worked for the Hawaiian Government Survey from about 1874 until 1877. The Office of Hawaiian Government Survey was established under the Interior Department in 1870, when the Minister of the Interior, F.W. Hutchison (who had the care of public lands and by law had the authority to have them surveyed), asked the Legislature for $5,000 for “Government Surveying.”
Its formation was prompted by the increased public demand for additional grants of government land in the late 1860s and the government’s corresponding ignorance of the amount or location of government land still available for lease or sale.
It was also surmised that a survey and its resultant maps, besides determining the extent of remnant government lands, would prove useful to private individuals and other government agencies, especially tax assessors, boundary commissioners and the courts, since no district maps then existed and island maps were still based on the charts of Cook and Vancouver.
Consequently, an Office of Survey was begun and its primary object was “to account for all the land in the Kingdom by its original title, and indicate such accounting on general maps, and while having no authority to settle boundaries, to require the surveyors to lay down such boundaries on maps to the best of their ability with the abundant information at their disposal.” (DAGS, Survey)
Monsarrat surveyed the Island of Lanai. After working for the government, Monsarrat opened his own surveying firm. He served as Crown surveyor from 1878 until Hawai‘i’s annexation with the US. (Geographicus) He also had a contract to survey Molokai.
During his long and active career, he personally surveyed a large portion of the Hawaiian Islands. From 1902 to the time of his death, he served as commissioner of boundaries for first and second judicial circuits. (Siddall)
Monsarrat married Florence Ellen Luce, at Honolulu, June 1, 1882; they had three children, Kathleen Douglas, Mildred Myrtle (deceased), and Ethel Florence. (They later divorced.) Monsarrat died October 23, 1922.
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