English Lock

[RangerThacher]

I'm considering buying the English Lock musket offered by Middlesex Village Trading Company. I know it was in use by the mid-17th century. But, what I'm trying to find out is, when was the English lock invented? Can anyone help?

 

[Musketeer]

I don't think they go back farther than the early 17th century. The little bit I've read seems to indicate they may have been an offspring of the snaphaunce of the mid to late 16th century. The MVTC site shows a pic of an original from the English Civil War which was 1642-1651, and I would bet they were still fairly new at that time. :hmm:

 

[Teleoceras]

RangerThacher:

I'm considering buying the English Lock musket offered by Middlesex Village Trading Company. I know it was in use by the mid-17th century. But, what I'm trying to find out is, when was the English lock invented? Can anyone help?

I agree with Musketeer. My records show the English Locks appearing at the beginning of the 17th Century. What we call the Flintlock, was originally called the French Lock was invented about twenty years later.

Slowmatch Forever!
Teleoceras

 

[robinghewitt]

Have they got it right? Huge lock plate, small steel and a dog catch :thumbsup:

 

[RangerThacher]

Thanks everyone. I did some more online searching after I posted my question. What has been contributed here basically agrees with what I've found elsewhere, sometime around the 1630s. Although I did find one site which claimed the lock pre-dated the 1630s.

 

[jstranah]

Although I did find one site which claimed the lock pre-dated the 1630s.

Source on that? I've been looking at the same weapon, but I'm doing the Elizabethan sea-dog thing, meaning my cutoff date is 1605....

 

[Teleoceras]

Yarrr I'm A Pirate:

Source on that? I've been looking at the same weapon, but I'm doing the Elizabethan sea-dog thing, meaning my cutoff date is 1605....

Then a Snaphaunce would the the flint arm for that period.

Slowmatch Forever!
Teleoceras

 

[RangerThacher]

Although I did find one site which claimed the lock pre-dated the 1630s.

Source on that? I've been looking at the same weapon, but I'm doing the Elizabethan sea-dog thing, meaning my cutoff date is 1605....

The source was this article about firearms in Plymouth Colony.

It is believed that the English lock quickly superseded the snaphaunce and that most of the locks found in the New World up to approximately 1625 are of this variety. The dog lock appears to have succeeded the English lock from 1625 to approximately 1675 and the flintlock supplanted the dog lock after 1675 (Peterson 2000:32).