william scull (1739 - 1784)
William Scull was an American cartographer and officer during the War of Independence.
William Scull was an officer during the Revolutionary War and then lived in Philadelphia and worked as a cartographer. He was the grandson of the famous Nicholas Scull, who served as Surveyor General of Pennsylvania during the colonial era. William Scull, fulfilling a commission from Penn Brothers landowners, created the famous map of Pennsylvania with southern boundaries showing Philadelphia, Bucks, Northampton, Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland, and York counties. William based his work on a map created by his grandfather and supplemented and expanded it with his own 1769 surveys.
As a result, Scull's 1770 map is among the largest and finest maps produced in America in the eighteenth century. It was published and reprinted many times in England and France; it was often included in composite atlases containing related maps. William Scull served in the Geographical Department of the Continental Army and was also a member of the American Philosophical Society.
