1675 King Phillips War guns

[rio nueces]

What types of firearms would be most likely used by English colonists in Massachusetts area during the 1675 Indian uprising called King Phillips War?

Matchlock, doglock flinter, or...? Caliber? This was sort of a firearm transition period, and that and the distance of the colonies from 'home' make me wonder.

During this war the English took the war to the Indians, attacking their well-fortified villages in the dead of winter and burning the Indians villages and food supplies, a strategy used subsequently in all other such wars up to the late 19th century.

 

[Curator]

By 1675 the American colonists had access to the "Jacobian" lock guns. Basically a flintlock with a horizontal sear that engaged at the cock's rear from the inside of the lock plate. These were a minor modification/simplification of the earlier snaphaunse lock eliminating the sliding pan cover and battery by replacing them with with the "L" shaped frizzen. Of course there were still older match locks, a few wheel locks and some snaphaunse guns in service. "Dog-lock" guns were only just coming on the scene and few had made it to the colonies at this time. Dog locks began to be common during the "War of Jenkin's Ear." (about 1740)

 

[rio nueces]

Thank you Curator, I knew there would be those who knew here at THR.
"Jacobian" locks. I'll have to search those and get an idea of the gun's configuration as well.
Sure must have been a wild assortment of guns used in that area in 1675.

 

[Cosmoline]

There's been interest in this topic among reenactors. The arms race was running hot and heavy back then, with the natives getting up-to-date arms through the fur trade and the colonists getting them from the mother country.

Some more info here:

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/197647/

http://www.snowshoemen.com/

 

[mykeal]

I think you'll have better luck looking up 'Jacobean' rather than 'Jacobian'. Don't be sidetracked by the 'Jacobean Locks' math problem.

 

[rcmodel]

likely used by English colonists in Massachusetts area during the 1675

Most likely they would use whatever arms they had been using for many years.

Unlike now?
Poor starving English colonists didn't run right out and buy the latest arms inventions as soon as they saw them on the internet!

rc

 

[rio nueces]

Thanks, great info.

Awesome pics here, 1675 era...

http://www.snowshoemen.com/churchscompany

 

[Cosmoline]

Poor starving English colonists didn't run right out and buy the latest arms inventions as soon as they saw them on the internet!

Well these weren't poor or starving people. By that point the colony had been growing for a generation with many tens of thousands of immigrants and a regular flow of supplies. They were more up-to-date than we might imagine, though the ferocity of the initial native attacks caught them by surprise. The hard lessons of that conflict helped to shape the American approach to small arms. The stories of these raids got passed down through generations, and were certainly on the minds of the Founders--like the Comanche's role in Texas history. And of course the reliance on Crown power and money led to taxation and leadership disputes that would continue for another hundred years.

 

[desidog]

Here's Paul Revere's artist rendition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_King_of_Mount_Hope_by_Paul_Revere.jpeg Remember, Paul Revere was a couple generations later, so his gun representation might not have been all that accurate.

A bit off topic, but King Phillips' brother Wamsutta, IIRC, died under an oak tree in a field in Marion, Mass, and that tree stood until some point in the 1980's.

About a quarter mile away from that field is a large rock with a hand-print carved into it, under which IIRC, he was buried. Also near there is a concave/bowl rock that was used by the Wampanoags for grinding corn into meal.

attacking their well-fortified villages in the dead of winter

If you haven't read "The Boy Captive of Deerfield," you should find a copy. It was followed by Boy Captive in Canada (where they took him.) It's probably out of print now; anyways, the snow was drifted up the stockade walls of Deerfield, and the indians snowshoed up and over.

 

[GCBurner]

Middlesex Village Trading Company offers an English Fishtail Fowler that would be appropriate to the period, and also a Fishtail Matchlock Musket from slightly earlier in the 1600s that may have still been in use at the time period.
http://www.middlesexvillagetrading.com/MEL.shtml

 

[rio nueces]

Yes, not so poor and starving. By 1675 the English had been thereabouts 55 years. Even so the Indians came very close to pushing them into the sea.

 

[Sergei Mosin]

Fascinating thread and links - I know next to nothing about firearms of this era, but my ancestors were in Massachusetts at the time and quite involved in the war.