doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 20 Gauge William Evans - What to do with the stock

Yes, wonderful history and story of the use of the gun. I did not mean to imply that your child would automatically be rid of the gun, just post that it happens more often than we like to consider.
Good idea to run any changes past the actual owner-happy wife, happy life, and all that.

Thanks for sharing it all with us.


Best,
Ted

Thank you all for comments and suggestions. I'm comfortable with the decision once she buys in. To finish up the story, here is General Palit 1991 at age 72 on one of his polo ponies with son who will inherit the shotgun. I had a complete course in game hunt etiquette from the General...almost entirely based on British hunting "rules" but with a couple of Indian Army twists (if the bird gets up and flys dead away from the senior officer in the hunt - its his bird; and its corollary - If a bird gets up pretty much anywhere - it's his first'. fortunately I was of a rank and as a democratic American and driver of the Jeep could negate that). And I failed utterly; I was using a Remington 870 pump.

An amazing time - I could mention the full dress ceremonial receptions for the Presidential bodyguard with the regimental silver, dinner jackets, Maharanis in jeweled saris and the regimental officers in red coats with chain mail eppellets...19th century. He was the "Colonel" (honorary commander) of the Indian Army Gurka regiment which he had commanded in 1948.





Yes, I'd give her a William Evans; (1990 in Uttar Pradesh - along an irrigation canal) Still will (She hasn't changed)

Argo, you're just bragging now.

What can I say? I was asked the question, "why?" India is seductive.

General Palit and I sometimes shot Nilgai...called "blue bull"...an antelope which destroyed fields but which the locals believed to be a cow (protected per Hindu religion) because of the hump on its back behind the neck (much like a Brahma Bull). So they left it to us. The meat, when wrapped in bacon (It was very red and lean) was amazing.

I've heard from Wm Evans and will get to the bottom of the original order sheet and especially whether silver was used on the gun and whether the original order included that cast off. Just for history.

Right handed shooters with a bad right eye should consider shooting a crossover style gun. The Evans may actually be a crossover gun for a slim faced person like your wife. A crossover takes little time to adjust to. I shoot a cased pair of William Evans sidelock crossovers as my favorite clays guns. We are not far from each other, I am about ten miles from the Maryland side of the bridge. I would be glad to give your wife a short instruction with her gun and mine to determine what can be done to allow her to return to right handed shooting. Her Evans is not suitable for shooting from the left shoulder.

Many thanks eight. She hasn't shot the 20 bore in oh...10 years..since it bruised a shoulder which is why I'm trying to gently update it. I'm trying to get her out to the Bull Run Shooting Center for an afternoon. She always enjoyed shooting in the past but has been involved in many other things recently. Actually I was the one who got her shooting that shotgun left handed - I was afraid she'd break her nose shooting those hot cartridges the General had in India. She's in France right now...I'll send you a private message. Perhaps you can help and it is very kind of you to offer. Gene Williams

Following from Williams Evans - this letter is communicating the original handwritten entries on the gun in the company books (photo-copies of which were forwarded as well). It seems odd that all six guns were ordered by "J. Wakefield" yet this one was sold to "Jacob Wakefield." Wonder if he were a dealer and just kept this one for himself? (but perhaps when Wm Evans mentioned that the "guns" were ordered...they misspoke? I can't quite read the turn of the century handwriting.)

The Best leather case, however was ordered hand labeled for "W. H. Wakefield"; it cost all of 2.17 lbs. I wonder if the gun were a present, perhaps for Jacob Wakefield's son, which might explain the stock extension later on? (The WHW label is missing from the case now).

Also trying to figure out how the gun could include trade-in value for Wm Evans #6050?? - unless he had ordered 6050 and in the 3 years wait for 5210, just abandoned his 20 lb deposit?

There is nothing about silver or cast off or special orders. Curious. I thought there might be more. Still, since the gun is an heirloom now, it's nice documentation to have.

There is an entry for Jacob Wakefield, Sedgewick House, Kendell, owning a stallion named "Sutton Park" in the 1993 livestock journal.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Bik_AQ...ick&f=false

The Wakefields of Kendall or something or another are gentry...no telling which rank - there were 113 in the class division of Britians in 1900.- Jacob was a banker. There is a great book by the author of the Flashman series George McDonald Fraser which features this country gentry class system - read "Mr. American" and take a look at the whole series...the greatest historical fiction on the 19th century empire and utterly hilarious.

W. H. Wakefield, son of Jacob Wakefield, His mother was American (daughter of the American Consul in Liberpool). He was born in 1891...when the gun was ordered he was 9 years old...when it was delivered he was 13...

https://books.google.com/books?id=8vQ7AA...ick&f=false



Anyway here is the pedigree.

Kendell is in Westmorland county - more connections to me and Vietnam'

Westmorland (sometimes spelled Westmoreland) in North West England no longer exists as a county, the original core of it having merged into the modern district of Eden within the county of Cumbria.

The traditional county of Westmorland, like neighbouring Lancashire, was itself a new creation during the Middle Ages. It seems to have been treated as part of Yorkshire in the 11th century, and the eventual boundaries represented a merger between an earlier entity called Westmorland, and the Barony of Kendal, which was apparently originally considered part of the Honor of Lancaster, though it did not become part of Lancashire. Kendal is also now part of Cumbria.

The original Westmorland is sometimes referred to as Westmarieland and is later referred to as the Barony of Appleby or "Northern Westmorland".

List of High Sheriffs of Westmorland County:

1893: Jacob Wakefield, of Sedgwick House, Kendal[39]

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SEDGWICK is a township on the river Kent, in the civil parish of Heversham, but for ecclesiastical purposes in the parish of Crosscrake, and is 2 � miles south-by-west from Oxenholme junction station on the London and North Western railway, 4 north from Milnthorpe station on the same line, and 4 south from Kendal. The Kendal and Lancaster canal runs through the township. Sedgwick House, the seat of Jacob Wakefield esq. D. L., J. P. is a fine mansion of Lancaster free stone, surrounded by about 7 acres of well laid out pleasure grounds. The area is 484 acres of land and 11 of water; rateable value, �2,385; the population in 1901 was 221.

Sedgwick House; the family owned up to 5,000 acres in the late 19th Century.



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Family crest



Now how did that 20 gauge get from NW England to India?

Jacob Wakefield ordered six guns but has one son? Or only one son that we know of? And they noted a bend was put in the original Evans #5210 but no mention of the extension or original LOP.