The Manton shotgun
IT can be said that Joseph Manton (1766-1835), as one of the great English gunmakers, transformed the sporting gun into what we think of as the shotgun today. He did this through a series of refinements and patents. This beautiful 20-bore shotgun represents probably the ultimate flintlock shotgun and was built by Manton around 1816. It is fitted with a patent top-rib, a patent priming pan with water drains, gravitational stops and rollers on the feather springs.
Manton was born in April 1766 to John Manton and Mary Gildon. Between 1780 and 1789 he was apprenticed to a gunmaker in Grantham, before working for his elder brother, John, from 1781 onward at 6 Dover Street in London. In 1789, at the age of 23, Joseph moved out on his own and began experimenting with various improvements for sporting guns. His innovations caught the eye of those working at the Board of Ordnance, and throughout the 1790s he was entertained by government patronage.
Yet it was in the sporting world that Manton really made his mark. His fame was such that on his death in 1835, Colonel Peter Hawker, probably the greatest sporting author of them all, simply praised Manton as: “The greatest artist in firearms that the world produced.”
This gun represents all that Manton stood for: inventiveness and elegance. It does, however, incorporate one additional refinement that was not his, a form of breech patented by Samuel Nock, another titan of the English gun trade, in 1787. Nock’s great advance combined a chamber in the breech plug and an ante-chamber drilled crosswise from the barrel touch-hole and closed on the other side with a screw plug. Powder was now confined loosely in the ante chamber. When the priming powder ignited there was an explosion rather than mere burning as before. Ignition and combustion of the main charge was much improved and speeded up, so less powder was needed.
The lock of this Manton gun displays a number of his innovations, such as a roller bearing between the steel and the feather spring and a friction-reducing link between the mainspring and tumbler, both designed to make the action smoother and quicker. The priming pan is waterproofed with drain holes and a waterproof pan cover. All features of the ultimate flintlock. Gunmakers such as Manton threw all their genius into improving the form and function of the flintlock sporting gun. As well as the improvements to breech and lock, the elevating sight rib was introduced by Joseph Manton in 1806, described at the time as “consisting of a fixed grooved ruler between the barrels in a proper direction to form the line of sight, to be able to point the gun to the object to be fired at”. It prevented guns shooting low and with the evolution of subtleties of grip and comb shape the basic form of the shotgun we know today was resolved.
Wing shooting therefore became easier, with the need for less lead and barrels that could be reduced in length without loss of performance. As a consequence, the double-barrelled shotgun became a practical proposition.
The Manton sporting gun can be viewed by appointment at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, the national museum of arms and armour. The museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm. Entry is free. www.royalarmouries.org