Joseph Cross

Joseph Cross, bookseller, publisher, copperplate printer and engraver had a shop at 18 Holborn “opposite Furnival’s Inn” from about 1823 when he engraved A new map of the county of Monmouth. Joseph Cross appears to have been joined in business by his son from between 1847 and 1854, when their imprint changed to “J. Cross & Son”.

Cross clearly had a keen interest in emigration to the Australian colonies, having published several works related, including: Atkinson’s An Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales, 1826; Chart of Van Dieman’s Land, 1826; Chart of Part of New South Wales…, 1827 – 1829; Wakefield’s A Letter from Sydney, the Principal Town of Australasia. Edited by Robert Gouger. Together with the Outline of a System of Colonization, 1829; Busby’s Authentic Information Relating to New South Wales, and New Zealand, 1832; but most famously, “the earliest work relating to the inland exploration of Western Australia” (Wantrup): Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia During the Years 1829, 1830, 1831 and 1832: Under the Sanction of the Governor, Sir James Stirling, 1833, which includes his subsequent map of Western Australia.

Additionally, Cross published: Cross’s New Plan of London, with improvements to 1840; Cross’s London Guide (1837); and Cross’s Miniature London (1846).

Joseph Cross II, “bachelor”, is recorded as having died on 19 November, 1865 at the age of forty-four, and his estate was left to his mother, Jane Cross.