A Very Fine and Rare Flintlock Carbine by Robert Wogdon from Shirburn Castle, 38 ¾" overall. 24" heavy octagonal,25 bore rifled with 8 groove, barrel, with a band of engraving at the breech, the Gunmakers’ Company view & proof marks and RW Wogdon mark, gold touch hole, signed on the top flat ‘Wogdon LONDON’, & with a fixed block “U” rear sight, finely engraved tang, & adjustable blade foresight. Double border line engraved, flat, bolted, bevelled lockplate, swan neck cock, engraved ‘Wogdon’, teardrop finial to the feather spring & double border line engraving to the front of the frizzen. Figured walnut full stock with oval section butt. Iron mounts comprising flat oval butt plate secured by three flush-fitting screws, trigger guard with florally engraved bow & acorn finial, two circular side nail cups, three collared ramrod pipes, the front of flared trumpet type, with a steel concave ramrod retaining spring fitted between the two pipes. Sling bar, ‘D’ shaped round sling swivel mounted on a screw through the swell of the stock above the rear ramrod pipe, early iron swivel ramrod of the design introduced by Hanoverian gunmaker A.H. Huhnstock & used by the Board of Ordnance on the 1776 Pattern infantry rifle. The ramrod is mushroom-headed, with a brass tipped ramming end.
Circa 1778
Very fine condition.
The third know example by Wogdon. The examples by Wogdon are of higher quality with engraved tangs steel mounts and locks retained by two side nails, The D Egg examples have plainer brass mounts, unengraved tangs and locks retained by a single side nail. I feel they were trials or pre-contract pieces for a Volunteer Milita.
Provenance: This highly unusual carbine is one of a total of a small number [fewer than 10] similar carbines, but all in differing bores and length’s, which formed part of a display in the Armoury Hall at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire, the seat of the Earls of Macclesfield since 1716. It is one of five by Durs Egg, two being by Robert Wogdon (now three this example is previously unrecorded), and one by Joseph Hunt, which were apparently commissioned by the second son of the 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, Colonel Lord George Lane Parker (1724-1791), circa 1778. Parker became Colonel of the 20th Regiment of Foot in 1773, Lt. General in 1777, and Colonel of the 12th Dragoons in 1782. Since the carbines are in various sizes, calibres, some are smoothbore, others rifled, and have other differences in detail, they may well were trials or pre-contract pieces with a view to the setting up of a volunteer troop. I have been long interested in this group of guns, having sold three in the last 25 years, I viewed them in 2004 when World Wide Arms first acquired them. The stock is similar to Indian matchlocks but more like an English skeleton stock with the top section removed. To satisfy my curiosity I have shot this example, it comes up to the eye very well, and felt recoil is not in any way excessive, hitting a target at 100 yards.
The contents of the Castle were sold off when the 9th Earl ceased to reside there in 2004 and it became vacant.
See “Robert Wogdon, Wogdon & Barton, John Barton, London Gunmakers 1764-1819” by John O’Sullivan and De Witt Bailey, pages 266-268 for reference for two similar examples by Wogdon of these highly unusual carbines.
Robert Wogdon was apprenticed to Edward Newton of Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1748. He is recorded as 'Gunmaker, at Mr. Maw's Haberdasher, Cockspur St., Charing Cross' in 1764. He carried on his business in Haymarket from 1774 until his retirement in 1802. From 1795 he was in partnership with John Barton who carried on the business following Wogdon's retirement.
Shirburn Castle Is a brick-built fortified manor house in Oxfordshire. Originally begun in around 1380, it had circular towers on each corner, a gate tower and a moat that was fed by local springs. Despite being dramatically altered in the 18th and 19th centuries, the building still retains the majority of its original brickwork.
In 1716 the 1st Earl of Macclesfield (family name Parker) bought the castle from the Gage family. The Parkers had been Royalists during the Civil War, but after the restoration, Gerald Parker was promoted to the position of Lieutenant General of all the English Forces and despite a dubious financial record, had been created the 1st Earl Macclesfield in 1679. Due to these financial irregularities, a second appointment of 1st Earl (an almost unique occurrence) was created in 1721 and given to Thomas Parker, son of the first 1st Earl. He was found guilty of accepting bribes whilst Chancellor of the Exchequer and fined the astonishing sum of £30,000.
It is the belief that the 4th Earl, also Thomas, established the carbines in the armoury in around 1780, which already housed a number of weapons unique to the castle.