Flintlock Pistol with Case and Accessories MET LC-37 154 3a g-040

Wogdon & Barton (founded by Robert Wogdon) was an 18th-century firm of

gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very h ...

s based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Robert Wogdon produced

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...

firearms from the 1760s, and was particularly well known for his high quality

duelling pistol A duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured in matching pairs to be used in a duel, when duels were customary. Duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead ball. Not all fin ...

s. The name Wogdon became synonymous with dueling, to the extent that duels in England were sometimes referred to as "a Wogdon affair". Wogdon had apprenticed to the Irish gunmaker Edward Norton in Lincolnshire. Wogdon formed a partnership in 1794 with John Barton, after which their pistols were signed Wogdon and Barton. Wogdon retired in 1803 and died in 1813. Wogdon made the pistols used in the infamous

Burr–Hamilton duel The Burr–Hamilton duel took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, between Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States, and Alexander Hamilton, the first and former Secretary of the Treasury, on the morning of July 11, 1804. The duel was the ...

, which were later claimed to have concealed "hair triggers" (also known as set triggers). These gave the person using them an advantage over their opponent by reducing the amount of finger pressure required to fire the pistol, which greatly increased accuracy of the shot. However, for at least twenty years before the Burr–Hamilton duel, English duelling pistols by all the top makers had been customarily fitted with set triggers. Wogdon's duelling pistols were fitted with set triggers as a standard feature, so they cannot be regarded as "secret" devices that other duellists of the era would be completely unaware of. Robert Wogdon (January 1734 - 28 March 1813) died aged 79 and was buried with his wife Jane (died 15 February 1805, aged 69) in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

of St Bartholomew's Church, located on the outskirts of

Buntingford Buntingford is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

References

External links

Review of British Dueling Pistols
1734 births 1813 deaths Defunct companies based in London Firearm designers Gunsmiths {{UK-corp-stub