The map shows four houses and yards (numbered 1 to 4) belonging to the Gosmans in the vicinity of Trinity Church, lower Manhattan, bounded on two sides by Lumber Street and Greenwich Street, and on the other two sides by properties owned by Mr. Childs and Mr. Gilchrist. According to the document, House No. 4 was sold pursuant to the indenture to Jo\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 da Silva, identified as a merchant, for 3,750 \u201cpounds current money of the State of New York.\u201d The indenture is signed by George Gosman, identified as a bricklayer, and his wife Jenat, as well as government officials James Kent and Peter Augustus Jay. The indenture mentions, and the map shows, House No. 3 as having been sold by Gosman to George Rossier and John Sigismund Roulette, but this sale was not a transaction under the indenture. The title of the map refers to the property as formerly \u201cSir Peter Warrens Ground,\u201d after the British admiral who had owned it. The indenture further states that Gosman purchased the property from Walter Livingston, who had prior purchased it from representatives of Warren, deceased.<\/p>\n
Casimir Goerck made surveys in 1785 and 1796 that became the foundation for the future gridded street scheme for Manhattan. The city\u2019s leaders intended the orderly design to increase the value of the land by eliminating haphazard street networks, especially in the northern areas, which left some plots unconnected to roads.<\/p>\n
In 1797, Goerck collaborated with Joseph Fran\u00e7ois Mangin to produce New York City\u2019s first real estate map, the huge Mangin-Goerck Plan. Mangin was a French-born architect and apparently the front man for negotiating the contract for the map with the City Council. Goerck\u2019s death at the end of 1798 left Mangin to complete the map alone. The map they had proposed — a detailed depiction of the locations of houses, lots, buildings, streets and wharfs — was not what Mangin eventually produced in 1803, which was more his idealized conception of what the city layout should look like. Mangin\u2019s map included streets named after himself and Goerck on the Lower East Side; only a small piece of Mangin Street exists today. In 1807, William Bridges re-engraved the Mangin-Goerck Plan under his own name; it can be viewed on our web site here.<\/a><\/p>\n Stokes provides an exhaustive historical record of Sir Peter Warren\u2019s extensive Manhattan land holdings, but does not specifically refer to this property. A Gosman descendant wrote in 1931 that George Gosman was one of four Scottish-born siblings who emigrated to New York, where he married Janet [sic.] Duncan.<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n \u201cCasimir Goerck Surveys, 1785, 1797.\u201d Het Ilias 2.<\/em> http:\/\/odin.let.rug.nl\/~kastud\/newyork\/v\/18\/g-survey.html (21 December 2004).<\/p>\n Cohen, Paul E. and Augustyn, Robert T. Manhattan in Maps: 1527-1995.<\/em> New York: Rizzoli, 1997. pp.96-97.<\/p>\n Halsey, Jeannie Louise. \u201cLetter to her cousin, Elisa Gosman.\u201d 14 December 1931. Tompkins Co., NYGenWeb Site.<\/em> 11 November 2002. http:\/\/www.rootsweb.com\/~nytompki\/scrap\/tlethalgos.htm (21 December 2004).<\/p>\n Stokes (Iconography) plate 70, V1.pp.454-455, Vol. 3 pp.865-66 & plate A5-b, Vol. 4, pp.157-169.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Street Necrology of the Lower East Side.\u201d Forgotten NY.<\/em> http:\/\/www.forgotten-ny.com\/streetnecrology\/lowereast\/lowereast.html (21 December 2004).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Casimir Th. Goerck (cartographer) Unique late 18th century lower Manhattan indenture of sale, a real estate contract for a house and yard belonging to George and Jenat Gosman. Of particular interest is the manuscript map of the Gosmans’ properties, including ones not sold, attached at the bottom of the indenture under a margin fold and seal. The map is by Casimir Goerck, City Surveyor, an important early figure in the mapping of New York City.<\/p>\n Product description continues below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3615,"template":"","meta":{"wds_primary_product_brand":0,"wds_primary_product_cat":0,"footnotes":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[4187],"product_tag":[195,6656,1701,1601,683,6655,498,6658,6654,2529,670,650,538,541,657,660,6657],"class_list":{"0":"post-3614","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-archive-sold-maps-views","7":"product_tag-18th-century","8":"product_tag-buildings","9":"product_tag-casimir","10":"product_tag-estate","11":"product_tag-goerck","12":"product_tag-gosmans","13":"product_tag-greenwich","14":"product_tag-ground","15":"product_tag-indenture","16":"product_tag-ink","17":"product_tag-manhattan","18":"product_tag-manuscript","19":"product_tag-map","20":"product_tag-new-york","21":"product_tag-new-york-city","22":"product_tag-street","23":"product_tag-warrens","24":"post","25":"post-with-thumbnail","26":"post-with-thumbnail-large","28":"first","29":"instock","30":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/3614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/3614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23085,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/3614\/revisions\/23085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=3614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis Indenture [with] A Map of Mr. George Gosmans Lots and Buildings in Greenwich Street formerly Sir Peter Warrens Ground. New York, Feb 8th 1796. Casimir Th. Goerck. City Surveyor<\/strong>
\nNew York, February 28, 1796 (map), February 29, 1796 (indenture)
\nIndenture with manuscript map
\nMap: pen, ink, wash on laid paper
\nIndenture: pen and ink on vellum with wax seals
\n10.5 x 15 inches, map
\n22 x 28.5 inches, overall indenture<\/p>\n