A RARE 11 BORE SILVER-MOUNTED FLINTLOCK SPORTING GUN BY EDWARD NEWTON, GRANTHAM, LONDON 1743, MAKERS MARK JA with rebrowned swamped barrel formed in four stages, fitted with chiselled silver fore-sight (rubbed), two-stage breech octagonal then polygonal, the former signed ‘E. Newton, Grantham’ within a frame of houndstooth, struck with the barrelsmith’s marks, a flowerhead and the initials ‘EN’ and private proof mark on the left, gold lined vent, engraved breech tang decorated with scrolls and grooved for sighting, banana shaped lock signed ‘E. Newton’ on a tasselled scroll beneath a rococo shell, fitted with broad engraved sliding bolt safety-catch, moulded cock chiselled with foliage (top-jaw and screw replaced), raised pan with water drain and moulded steel (refaced), figured walnut full stock carved with a raised moulding involving a rococo shell about the tang (the fore-end with a small repaired crack, small filled repairs and dents on the butt), finely chased full silver mounts comprising butt-plate decorated with rococo fronds, a cockle shell and acanthus foliage, side-plate formed as a pike, trigger-guard with acanthus forward terminal, a flower at the rear and engraved with a further large cockle shell on the bow (rubbed), escutcheon chiselled with a leafy branch inhabited by a large pheasant, three ramrod-pipes (the forward-most an early replacement) and horn-tipped wooden ramrod, perhaps the original, 106.8 cm barrel ProvenanceAlexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton (1723-1769)Eglinton Castle, sold Dowell’s Edinburgh, 1st – 5th December 1925, lot 903The Rev. E.C. AlstonW. Keith Neal (no. G331), sold Bonham’s 10th November, 2005, lot 19 LiteratureW. Keith Neal & D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers, 1740 – 1790, 1975, p. 108, plates 378 – 380.W. Keith Neal & D.H.L. Back, Messrs. Griffin & Tow and W. Bailes, 1989, p.18.Fred Buller, The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike, Stanley Paul & Co., 1979, p.181 (sideplate illustrated).John A. Atkinson, The British Duelling Pistol, p.45. Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton (1723-1769) was a politician, reformer and close friend of James Boswell who records his time with Doctor Johnson in his London Journal 1762-1767. Eglinton took considerable interest in national and local affairs, particularly in the welfare of his tenants, and was described as the reviver of agriculture in Ayrshire. In the family archives there is a letter to his brother stating that a duel took place between him and a Mr Bathurst with apparently no consequence of note. His life came to an untimely end when he was accidentally shot by Mungo Campbell, an excise officer on Ardrossan beach. Eglinton saw Campbell with a musket, having already warned him against carrying a weapon on his land. The earl rode up with some servants and challenged Campbell to hand over his piece, while chiding him for suspected poaching. Campbell refused and backed away from the earl, who continued to demand the weapon. The stand-off continued, Campbell stumbled and discharged his weapon as he fell. The ball struck the earl in the stomach, inflicting what he himself immediately recognized as a fatal wound, he died in the early hours of 25th October. Campbell was found guilty of murder at the high court of justiciary in Edinburgh on 27th February 1770, but escaped execution by hanging himself in his cell on the night of 1st March. Edward Newton of Grantham (1718-1764) has been described as a pivotal gunmaker, in terms of the quality, diversity and technical innovations in the weapons he made and of the next generation of illustrious gunmakers who were apprenticed to and influenced by him. These include Robert Wogdon, John Fox Twigg, John Manton (to William Edson, Newton’s foreman) and Thomas Manton. See Wimsey 2000, pp. 281-289.
