I am not sure when the term ‘historical geography’ was first used. One early example comes from 1834 when it appeared in the phrase ‘historical or political geography’ in the article on geography in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Another early example is dated 1846 when it entered into the title of Karl von Spruner's pioneer historical atlas. In this context it implied concern with changes in political boundaries and with the varying extent of states and provinces; and this usage has continued among some people up to the present day. It also formed part of the titles of a number of books in the 1840s which were very largely historical topographies.

Before the end of the century the term was also used to indicate concern with the influence of geography upon history. That it became increasingly frequent may be gathered from the fact that in 1873 H. F. Tozer (himself a classical geographer) could say that A. P. Stanley had ‘done more than any living man to promote the intelligent study of historical geography’; his most notable contribution was a volume on Sinai and Palestine (1856), which sought to trace the relations between the geography of the area and the history of its people. Stanley acknowledged the help of ‘Mr Grove, of Sydenham’ in Kent, who later contributed many geographical articles to William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (1860–5).