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Lot Essay
Captain Patrick Ferguson (1744-80) patented his improved version of the la Chaumette breech-loading system in 1776. He employed the quick thread on the breech-plug which enabled it to be lowered by one turn of the trigger-guard (already used by Bidet in London in the 1720s), but he improved the action to prevent jamming after a few rounds mainly by cutting a recess into the plug (for grease) and vertical grooves across the screw threads. The present rifle incorporates both these improvements
Ferguson demonstated his rifle most successfully to the Board of Ordnance and to the King, whom he told that he could fire seven shots in a minute although 'he would not undertake in that time to knock down above five of His Majesty's enemies'. Initially two rifles were made by Durs Egg, followed by the production of one hundred, which a company of volunteer riflemen were trained to use. Under Ferguson's leadership the riflemen fought with distinction in the American War of Independence at the battle of Brandywine Creek in 1777, but Ferguson was badly wounded, and Sir William Howe, said to have been insulted because Ferguson's corps was raised without his knowledge, disbanded it, returning the men to their units. For the next two years Ferguson led raids with small bodies of troops in the Jerseys and the south, and fought under Tarleton. He was killed at the battle of King's Mountain, in North Carolina, on 7 October 1780, the only British officer with over a thousand loyal Americans
The catalogue of the 1776 Exhibition states that the '15' on the barrel of the present rifle indicates that it was intended for use by Ferguson's corps. It further suggests that it may have been Ferguson's own rifle, or one used at the trials at Woolwich Warren. Similar Ferguson rifles are preserved in the U.S.A., respectively in the Morristown National Historical Park, New Jersey, and the Smithsonian Institute, Washington (see Howard L. Blackmore, Guns and Rifles of the World, nos. 399-400)
Ferguson demonstated his rifle most successfully to the Board of Ordnance and to the King, whom he told that he could fire seven shots in a minute although 'he would not undertake in that time to knock down above five of His Majesty's enemies'. Initially two rifles were made by Durs Egg, followed by the production of one hundred, which a company of volunteer riflemen were trained to use. Under Ferguson's leadership the riflemen fought with distinction in the American War of Independence at the battle of Brandywine Creek in 1777, but Ferguson was badly wounded, and Sir William Howe, said to have been insulted because Ferguson's corps was raised without his knowledge, disbanded it, returning the men to their units. For the next two years Ferguson led raids with small bodies of troops in the Jerseys and the south, and fought under Tarleton. He was killed at the battle of King's Mountain, in North Carolina, on 7 October 1780, the only British officer with over a thousand loyal Americans
The catalogue of the 1776 Exhibition states that the '15' on the barrel of the present rifle indicates that it was intended for use by Ferguson's corps. It further suggests that it may have been Ferguson's own rifle, or one used at the trials at Woolwich Warren. Similar Ferguson rifles are preserved in the U.S.A., respectively in the Morristown National Historical Park, New Jersey, and the Smithsonian Institute, Washington (see Howard L. Blackmore, Guns and Rifles of the World, nos. 399-400)