Richard Thornton produced two outstanding large-scale plans of Manchester as the pinnacle of his work as a map surveyor. Yet, like the vast majority of nineteenth-century surveyors, little is known about him. This reflects the fact that most private surveyors were held in very low esteem, although the quality of Thornton’s work should have exempted him from any such scorn. His two plans, published in 1832 and 1851, are shown to be valuable and accurate depictions of the rapidly expanding town as it flourished as the groundbreaker of industrialization. Some new evidence about Thornton’s life and work has been unearthed, yet even the most assiduous searches have produced relatively little to flesh out his skeletal details. What is clear, however, is that the impact of Thornton’s two plans owes much to the respective support of Thomas Bancks - a local bookseller - and Joseph Adshead - estate agent, social campaigner and local politician - both of whom took the risk of publishing and promoting Thornton’s surveys in the very uncertain market for commercial maps.

中文翻译：

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调查测量员：理查德·桑顿和他的出版商

理查德·桑顿 (Richard Thornton) 制作了两个杰出的曼彻斯特大型计划，作为他作为地图测量员工作的巅峰之作。然而，就像 19 世纪的绝大多数测量员一样，人们对他知之甚少。这反映了一个事实，即大多数私人测量师都受到了非常低的尊重，尽管桑顿的工作质量应该使他免受任何此类蔑视。他于 1832 年和 1851 年出版的两份计划被证明是对快速扩张的城镇的宝贵而准确的描述，因为它作为工业化的开创者而蓬勃发展。一些关于桑顿生平和工作的新证据已经出土，但即使是最刻苦的搜索也没有产生多少来充实他的骨架细节。然而，显而易见的是，