Firelock?

[Jib]

I'm currently reading a book on the English Civil War and they mention "Firelocks". The author provides a brief description that still leaves me what the heck these are. He implies they are doglocks. Also mentions the snaphause (spelling). Anyone have knowlege of this term?

[michaelsbagley]

Yep, it was a term used throughout the 17th century... It has been used to indicate any lock type that wasn't a "match lock"... So it was used to refer to Snaphaunces, Doglocks, English Locks, "true" flintlocks, etc. etc.... I've not seen the term "firelock" used in reference to wheel locks, but that doesn't mean it wasn't used as such.... There is a LOT I don't know.

[Cascabel]

Yep, it was a term used throughout the 17th century... It has been used to indicate any lock type that wasn't a "match lock"... So it was used to refer to Snaphaunces, Doglocks, English Locks, "true" flintlocks, etc. etc.... I've not seen the term "firelock" used in reference to wheel locks, but that doesn't mean it wasn't used as such.... There is a LOT I don't know.

In His Majesty's Regulations of 1768, they are referred to as "firelocks". They are definitely true flintlocks by that time. I suspect the term was in use for quite some time.....

>>>> Cascabel

[hurricane]

Yep, it was a term used throughout the 17th century... It has been used to indicate any lock type that wasn't a "match lock"... So it was used to refer to Snaphaunces, Doglocks, English Locks, "true" flintlocks, etc. etc.... I've not seen the term "firelock" used in reference to wheel locks, but that doesn't mean it wasn't used as such.... There is a LOT I don't know.

But he does know how to find recipes in Maxxim. I've been through my last 10 issues (over and over again) and haven't found a single recipe. And yet, he insists they are there. :)

-- Hurricane

[michaelsbagley]

Yep, it was a term used throughout the 17th century... It has been used to indicate any lock type that wasn't a "match lock"... So it was used to refer to Snaphaunces, Doglocks, English Locks, "true" flintlocks, etc. etc.... I've not seen the term "firelock" used in reference to wheel locks, but that doesn't mean it wasn't used as such.... There is a LOT I don't know.

But he does know how to find recipes in Maxxim. I've been through my last 10 issues (over and over again) and haven't found a single recipe. And yet, he insists they are there. :)

-- Hurricane

I was a subscirber for about 3 years... My live in girlfriend of the time enjoyed the mag more than I did in all honesty (this was about 10 years ago)... In the 3 or 4 years I was a subscriber, I think I saw all of 5 or 6 recipes printed in the magazine... 3 of them happen to be recipes I LOVE, which is why I kept that issue and tossed the rest of them out.

[Capt. Sterling]

The Snaphaunce locks were developed in mid to late 1500’s being much simpler to make than the wheellock. The pan cover was still a separate sliding piece as on wheellocks and the sear arrangement is basically the same. The frizzen could be left forward as a kind of safety on guns with out the sear locks. Large powerful mainsprings make these large locks very fast dependable sparkers. The Dutch, French, and English were the main users of these types of locks. Many of these guns were sent over to America in the early 1600’s as they were better suited for our needs of defense and hunting than matchlocks. George Moller has found that 1000 Snaphaunce muskets were sent to the Virginia Colony in 1702, so they were used quite late. Many Snaphaunce locks were fitted to matchlock muskets to update them.

One Snaphaunce is listed on a raid to the new world in 1584, where a soldiers snaplock pistol dropped from his belt and went off upon hitting the ground and killing him.

From The Rifle Shoppe

[Capt. Sterling]

The snaphaunce lock appeared in Europe in the mid-16th century and was the earliest form of flintlock firearms ignition system. It was later differentiated from the ‘true’ flintlock by firearms scholars for whom the ‘true’ and original snaphaunce lock had a steel separate from the pan cover and a cock incapable of the half-cock safety position. The pan cover either slid open automatically upon the trigger being pulled or had to be slid open manually first. Snaphaunce locks seem to have been invented by the Dutch, who gave them the name snaphaan, meaning ‘snapping hen’. They likened the flint-bearing hammer to a cock bird (Hahn in German, Haan in Dutch) and Haan, when translated into English as ‘cock’, came to mean the hammer, which struck the steel with its flint to ignite the primary charge. Differing styles of snaphaunce developed in the Low Countries, in Britain, Spain, Italy, and North Africa. As a system it remained popular in Spain, the Balkans, and North Africa into the 19th century, where it was the ignition system principally found on miquelet muskets.

Bibliography

* Blair, Claude (gen. ed.), Pollard's History of Firearms (London, 1983)

Snaphauncethe precursor to the 18th-century flintlock, the snaphaunce is a mechanism whereby a flint held in a cock was struck against a steel battery that was separate from the pan cover. This example has the typical S-shaped cock, which is still grasping a fragment of the flint. The large ornamental "button" at the end of the flashpan (center of the exterior view) appeared on most snaphaunce locks. The battery would have been anchored toward the right end of the plate (exterior view) but is missing here. This type of gun-lock, in various sizes, is found on many Virginia 17th-century sites.

Commonwealth of Virginia websites

Virginia Department of Historic Resources

a couple of repros

And a spanish snaphaunce

go here to see the rest of her...snaphaunce

Edited March 18, 2009 by Capt. Sterling

[hurricane]

I was a subscirber for about 3 years... My live in girlfriend of the time enjoyed the mag more than I did in all honesty (this was about 10 years ago)... In the 3 or 4 years I was a subscriber, I think I saw all of 5 or 6 recipes printed in the magazine... 3 of them happen to be recipes I LOVE, which is why I kept that issue and tossed the rest of them out.

So what you're saying is that I need to order all the back issues to find the recipes. I'll explain it that way to Diosa and see how it works. I'm sure she'll understand. :)

-- Hurricane

Edited March 18, 2009 by hurricane

[michaelsbagley]

Hurricane, I'm sure Diosa would heartily agree with you buying up all the back issues you can...

From "Soldiers In King Philip's War" by George Madison Bodge, originally published in 1906...

This citation is apparently from the Massachusetts archives, but printed on pages 612-613 of the above mentioned book. Bolded section emphasized by me.

26: February, 1628.

Necessaries conceaved meete for our intended voadge for Newe England to bee prpared forewith.

For our 5 peeces of ordnance, long sence bowght and paid ffor, John Humphrey is intreated & doth promise forewith to cause to bee delyvered to Samuel Sharpe, Who is to take care - having fytt cariadges made for them.

Armes for 100 men: - 3 drums, to ech 2 pere of hedds; 2 ensignes; 2 partizans, for captain & lieftenant; 3 halberts, for 3 sarjants; 80 bastard musketts, wth snaphances, four ffoote in the barrill, without rests; 6 long ffowlinge peeces wth muskett boare, 5 1/2 ffoote longe; 10 ffull musketts, 4 ffoote barrill, wth matchcocks and rests; - 90 bandeleeres, for the musketts, ech wth a bullett bag; - 10 home fflaskes, for the longe ffowling peeces, to hould a lb. a peece; & 100 swoordes, and belts; - 60 corsletts, & 60 pikes; - 12 bblls powder, 8 barrills for the forte, 4 for small shott; shott 1 lb. to a badeleere; 8 peeces of land ordnance for the forte, whereof 5 alreddy prouided; - namely: 2 demie culverings, 30 C. weight a peece, 3 sackers, ech weinge 25 C. wt; - to prouide; - 1 whole culvering, as longe as may bee, 2 small peeces iron drakes; For great shott, a ffitt proporcion to the ordnance; A sayne, being a nett ro fish with.

E J Blackley and Sons in the UK seem to be the only ones selling the locks premade.... Okay, the Rifle Shoppe does sell them as well if you have the patience to wait the 18 to 24 month waiting period I hear is average for their products (which most say are well worth the wait).

[MadMike]

"Boarders Away, Vol II" has a list printed from 1712 for a RN ship showing "Snaphaunce Musquets", "Musquetoons", "Bandaliers", "Cartouch boxes", "Hand Grenadoes", etc. A musket rest was found on the Whydah...

Yours, Mike

Edited March 19, 2009 by MadMike