Cuninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont, 1604-1608 (Annotated ed)

By the early Seventeeth Century, Timothy Pont had personally surveyed, with astonishing accuracy, all the counties and isles of Scotland, and made notes to support his cartography.

Cunninghame Topographized is a chorographical description of the district of Cunningham, Ayrshire, in Sir James Balfour of Denmilne's Collections on the Shires (National Library of Scotland Adv.MS.33.2.27, ff.205-15).

Although the author of the handwriting has not been identified, it is credited to Timothy Pont on the opening page.

The short manuscript, consisting of a brief Introduction and an 'Alphabett' of 348 names in Cunninghame, Ayrshire, was extensively annotated by James Dobie, making this a substantial contribution to the knowledge of the history of the area.

According to the Introduction, James Dobie's premature death in 1853 allowed a plagiarised version to appear, ( as Topographical Account of the District of Cunningham, Ayrshire.

Compiled about the year 1600, by Mr Timothy Pont, edited by J.

Fullarton, Glasgow: Maitland Club, 1858 ). His work was updated by his son and published, nearly twenty years later, as Cuninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont, A.M., 1604-1608, edited by J.

S. Dobie (Glasgow: John Tweed, 1876). It is this 1876 edition which is reprinted here.