Existing comment:
The Woodson Musket.
By Woodson family tradition, this gun is the one used by a man named Ligon who helped Sara Woodson defend her Prince George County home on April 18,1644. According to this tradition, "his first shot killed three Indians, his second two, and his third two more Indians." The account goes on to say that, as a tribute to Ligon, his name was carved on the stock. However, this gun has been stocked several times, which would explain the absence of Ligon's name.
This seven foot four inch weapon, best described as an English fowler, designed for shooting birds, largely dates to 1740 and after, but it is just possible that the barrel only may coincide with the earlier Woodson-Ligon tradition.
The barrel is approximately .80 caliber or 12 gauge and has a slight swell at the breach and also a slight flare at the muzzle. Proof marks appear on the barrel near the breech and the flintlock is marked "Collicott," the name of a lock maker in Bristol, England about 1750. The brass furniture consists of a cast butt plate with a graduated four-step tang, a convex side plate with a tail, an unmarked escutcheon plate at the wrist, a trigger guard, and three ramrod pipes of equal length, with a fourth possessing a tail where the ramrod enters the lower stock. |