Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres
1721-1824
The cartographer and statesman Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres was born in 1721, likely in Basel, Switzerland. After completing school, DesBarres moved to England, where he trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
DesBarres made maps of the Atlanta, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as much of the Canadian Territory.
DesBarres, who was lieutenant governor of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia between 1784 and 1787, laid out the plan of its capital, Sydney. From 1804 to 1812 DesBarres served as governor of Prince Edward Island.
DesBarres died at the age of 102, in 1824.