English Dragoon sword with Possible Jacobite Connection

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Thanks Jim, glad you like the photos. I suppose the breaking of the Jacobite swords and then putting them to such base usage was a sort of way of emphasizing the Jacobites' defeat and of denigrating the enemy.

Looking over the internet it seems in the late 19th century the sword fence was taken down and the blades sold to a local scrap metal dealer for 26/- (say US$ 5.00). Many were later removed by Lord Archibald Campbell to Inveraray Castle in Scotland. Would be most interesting to see them.

I first visited Chiddingstone Castle over 25 years ago, they had more material on display then, and if memory serves me well there was an old photograph of the sword fence in situ, in a sort of lattice work style ? But I couldn't see the photo on my last visit, perhaps I am mistaken...

Regards.

Actually I have a small monograph of the original work by Lord Archibald Campbell in 1894 (limited print and very rare) which was republished by the late Andrew Mowbray in 1971. In it there are a number of original photos of some of the blades (pretty dark and hard to make out). It has been said that 192 swords were 'harvested' from the battlefield (the Jacobites had 1200 casualties).
Of these, there were apparently only two with the GR monogram, of the others most were 'ANDREA FERARA; running wolf and some other markings. There were a couple of blades with crowns and monograms defaced, so apparently Jacobite.
According to this reference, Lord Campbell got 137 of the blades, but could not determine present disposition of them