Well thank you all for the kind words, and for not thinking I overdid the photos!
It really does appear to have belonged to the chief of Clan Grant, even if it was a purchase for household use. I've looked at this all ways, and in conversation with Joe P on it some while back, I recall he thought it too nice for servant use. We Do see weapons for retainers by top makers, but they are usually very plain.
Fortunately, the Grants were fairly long -lived, so there can be only three candidates and one of them a bit unlikely. The only ones from this time-frame would be
James, Ludovick, or his son, "The Good Sir James".
Even if it was just a mere household pistol or coaching pistol for one of these Lairds, I would be much more than happy!
Fortunately! we know that the Grants were Peers of the Realm, (Baronets) and as such sat in the House of Lords and were members of parliament for their home ridings in Scotland.
(If I go to check the name of the constituencies to ensure correctness, I will lose this post it seems so will edit it in later!)
As this has not changed for hundreds of years, we can be quite confident that the family crest was and still does "belong" to whoever is the present Bt. Or "Head of the House.
This gave me some pause for thought............that even when some of Scotland was in rebellion, ('15, '45 etc. ) others were down in London sitting in parliament, business as usual. Somehow it doesn't fit with out Hollywood ideas!
I feel a bit uneasy using the term "Clan Chief" with all the accompanying Scottish idealism it appears to generate, but whoever held the title of Baronet, was also the clan chief, so the term is a bit difficult to altogether get away from. Maybe "Chief Grant" sounds better and I gather also correct. :-)
Having been keeping myself busy of an eve looking into this, I am quite convinced that "Lewie" Grant was the owner. He is the only one that really fits. (1707 -1773)
A while ago, I found a fantastic archive of letters to and from the Grant Chiefs & their family, More than 650 letters in all!
The first are before the pistol's time, from Mary, Queen of Scots, commanding the Laird of Grant to go into the lands of (was it McCloud??.. forget!) with fire and sword, and take whatever he wished for his troubles.
That it was no mere suggestion is plain at the end of the letter where she adds, "On pain of treason" (!) In other words, if you Don't you'll be hung, drawn and quartered! Hmm. Not much diplomacy but I bet it got the job done!
The letters are very interesting, covering topics varying from betrothals, marriages, deaths and how to cope with them, births, birthdays, politics, (Both James & his son Lewis, or Ludovick as he was variously called) were MP's as we already said.
Lettersalos to" lewie" from his uncle, Simon Frazor, Lord Lovat, a great amount of letters from the period of the '15 and '45, especially the latter, when Lewis was given control of Clan matters by his aging father. (His dad stayed in London for the duration!)
*** Many letters from this period are intelligence reports on the doings of the rebels, and requesting arms for his men. He had 600 willing men, but not near enough muskets, and was very short of flints!***
He was willing to bring these men out in support of the Crown, but pressed the need for arms on numerous occasions.
Quite often a messenger would be intercepted by the rebels, and the odd one was hanged by them, so on occasion he sent as many as four messengers carrying copies of the same information, via different routes to ensure the message got through.
Other letters covered things like the Prince of Wales wedding, to a "Syd Saddle" and a black being sent. (I thought a black horse, but it transpires it was a new servant, with a suggestion of a new name for him,....Grant!)
To how to salt pork, and what to do with children when the marry in a clandestine manner!
The weather is also mentioned, with very severe snows in this period," like never known before in fact or fable!"
That there should be such an amount of information on the family who owned this pistol, is to me very sobering.
Sorry for all this writing!!!
Another bit of (to me, that is!) Interesting stuff; **********
From Blackmore's book "Gunmaker's of London".....(.a Christmas present!!) I saw that James Lowe had his shop in Cannon Row, in the city of Westminster, London.
In these letters, I noted that the Grant's London residence was also in Westminster, in Conduit Street. (This is between Mayfair & Soho, on the West side of Regent's Street), and I wondered how far away it was from the gunshop.
Well, I have yet to find out that part!....But! I Did find that Cannon Row is squeezed in between Parliament Street and the Thames, just North of Westminster Bridge, And, straight across the road from said Cannon Row, is Big Ben & the Houses of Parliement!
The exclamation mark above, is because as both Sir James and later Sir Lewis (or Ludovick) Grant were both MP's, The Houses of Parliament would be where a good bit of time was spent, and what could be handier when ordering guns, than a Gunmaker just across the road?
I had hoped and still do, to find in a letter reference to purchasing arms in London, but as the shop was so close to the place of work, maybe the ordering was done with no need of letters back and forth. Just walk across the road at dinner -time!
Sorry this is so long but I found it V interesting!!
Richard.
That's a fine looking pistol. I was glad to see the ramrod grew in length between the auction photos and your photos. ;-)
Mark, Yes it Did! Purple heart so it should be right.
