Thomas Craskell

Thomas Craskell (died 1790)[1] was a British engineer and painter active in Jamaica during the eighteenth century.

He was a military engineer for much of his life. He was a lieutenant in the Engineer Corps among the troops Major-General Peregrine Hopson led in the invasions of Martinique and Guadeloupe in early 1759.[2] His career as a marine painter involved working alongside Peter Monamy and Samuel Scott in the mid-eighteenth century. Craskell was familiar with naval technology, and showed precise rendering of sails and rigging in his paintings. There are only four known works by Craskell; two of these are in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.[3]

In 1758, he started the supervision of the King's House in Spanish Town.[4]

His son, also called Thomas Craskell, was a Captain in the army who was appointed Superintendent General of the Maroons to replace Major John James.[5]

Survey of Jamaica

From 1756 to 1761 he worked with James Simpson in conducting a survey of Jamaica that resulted in three maps which could be combined to create an overall map 90 x 38 inches in size.[4]

  • Cornwall
    Cornwall
  • Middlesex
    Middlesex
  • Surrey
    Surrey

Paintings

References
  1. "Obituaries of Considerable persons with biographical anecdotes". The Gentleman's Magazine. 70: 467. 1790.
  2. Porter, Whitworth (1889). History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. London: Longmans, Green and Co. p. 189.
  3. "Thomas Craskell biography". Rountree Tryon. Rountree Tryon. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  4. "Thomas Craskell & James Simpson: To the Right Honorable Wills Earl of Hillsborough". Rare Maps. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  5. Kaifala, Joseph (2016). Free Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 9781349948543. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
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