1730 type muskets from the Edinburgh Town Guard

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

41071

Title

Five 1730 type muskets from the Edinburgh Town Guard

Description

Five of the earliest muskets belonging to the Edinburgh Town Guard. Dates engraved on the lock are 1728, 1729, 1730, 1742 and 1743 but they are all of a style developed in 1730. The muskets are in varying states of preservation, and only the third musket down has a complete lock.

Date

1745

Type

Metal; Wood

Location

Museum of Edinburgh

These muskets are the five earliest in a set of 39 muskets which the Town Guard of Edinburgh acquired in 1744-1745. They were assembled at the Tower of London, the headquarters of the Board of Ordnance which provided all the artillery for the British Army. Documentary evidence strongly supports the theory that the muskets were sent to Edinburgh as part of a shipment of 5000 small arms to various cities in Scotland in 1744-1745 to help defend them from the anticipated Jacobite rebellion led by Charles Edward Stuart (known as Bonnie Prince Charlie).

It is believed that the muskets were either sent to Edinburgh Castle where they remained until after the Rebellion had been suppressed following the Battle of Culloden, or that they had been supplied to the Town Guard before the occupation of Edinburgh by the rebel army. By 1747, the Town Guard were in possession of these 39 muskets to replace a set of older firelock muskets. The guns remained in the Guard's care until November 1817 when the Guard was disbanded and their equipment, arms and uniforms deposited at the City Chambers.

Most muskets of this type were lost in battle, where they were fired once or twice before being abandoned on the battlefield. Because the Town Guard muskets did not see much (or any) action in battle, they are astonishingly well preserved, and may be the largest collection of early standard issue firearms in the world.

While none of the locks show any evidence of regular firing, the brass strip protecting the butt (the part which rested against the shoulder, or on the floor when carried) is often worn down to the wood. This is evidence of many hours of drill and parading on Edinburgh's hard cobbles. Indeed in the 1780s the Guard was complemented on their organised marching formations, but also their target practice which they carried out on Calton Hill.

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