Description:
Musket with a cut-down maple stock, which descended in the Williams family of Deerfield according to the donor, Elizabeth B. Fuller. According to family tradition, the musket was carried by Colonel Ephraim Williams (1715-1755) at Lake George where he was killed on September 8, 1755. This tradition has been questioned for several reasons, one of which is that Williams musket was said to be in collection of Eugene Miller of Nutley, NJ (last noted 1978) and catalogued in Merrill Lindsay's "The New England Gun." Also HD's musket has a serpent-like brass figure, known as a "dragon ornament," on the left sideplate, a decoration that appeared on Indian trade guns well into the nineteenth century. English and European traders began furnishing Indians with guns in the 1600s, and by the mid-1700s, the Indian trade gun was the most traded weapon in North America. The wide-spread use of Indian trade guns resulted in many names: the French called it the fusil, fusee, or fuke; the gunmakers of England called it the Carolina musket; and some traders and explorers, including Gen. William H. Ashley referred to it as the London fusil. In Canada, the Hudson's Bay Company traded guns to the Indians on a large scale from its beginning in 1670. Despite protests from the American Colonists, both the French and English used Indian trade guns to form alliances with the Indian Nations; the primary source of the Indian trade gun for the English were factories in Birmingham and London. After the American Revolution both the American government and private firms entered the business of trading guns to Indians. Both turned first to British suppliers, but by the early 1800s they were patronizing American manufacturers as well, specifying in either case that the dragon ornament appear on guns purchased. This musket has a pistol lock stamped "Richards" (unidentified) with some hatch marks on the end on the right side, which replaced the original lock; a six pointed roulette over the initials "RW" (unidentified) which is between two London proof marks on the breech end of the barrel: a crown over an enjoined "GP" (a London proof mark of the Gunmakers' Company) and a crown over a "V" (London viewers' mark). Proofing in Great Britain dates back to 1637, when the Gunmakers Company of London was incorporated under a Royal Charter. Proof was necessary to protect the public against the many unsound arms then being made and sold, which not only endangered the public but, indirectly brought discredit upon reputable gunmakers. The Gunmakers Company secured its Ordinances in 1670 and from that time was enabled to enforce proof in and around London; the original proof marks are still in use today. The Birmingham Proof House was established in 1813, by Act of Parliament, which replaced the system of private Proof Houses in use in Birmingham, another major gun making center. The musket has brass ramrod ferrules, rifled bore, and iron hardware.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.299 |
