doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Westley Richards 16143 – history & A.C.M. initials

I've emailed Westley Richards on a few guns and they have provided information that they didn't charge for. Saying that, the info was more gun related not when sold and to whom. The following was one of the emails that I received from an employee about my sidelever Westley. Here they did provide the original owner. No charge.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your kind enquiry,

Your gun was completed for a Sir William Burdett on the 25th of November 1896 & must have had a second gun made later.
Our sidelever shotguns were a special order & we have only seen a handful of them over the years, sadly we cannot confirm how many were made.

With best regards,

Mike,

Thank you very much. This is extremely helpful, and the example of the information Westley Richards provided you is exactly the kind of information I am hoping to obtain.

I will definitely try contacting Westley Richards directly before paying for the full historical research letter.

If you happen to remember which email address or department at Westley Richards you contacted, I would really appreciate it.

My main questions concern serial number 16143: its exact completion date, original configuration/grade, whether the gun was originally built with the detachable lock and single trigger, and, if possible, the name of the original customer. I am also particularly interested in the gold A.C.M. initials on the stock and whether they appear in the original records.

Thanks again for taking the time to help.

Best regards,
Thomas

I may be able to help with the hunt for the initials, using my copy of the 1907 Kelly's Directory of significant people. Let me know if you find any further clues.

Au revoir

HB

Bonjour Thomas,

I may have a name for you. I have quickly scanned my copy of "Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1905' and can only see one person that fits, out of roughly 2,000.

He is:
Arthur Charles MITCHELL, the son of the late Fraser Henry Mitchell of Upper Wimpole Street, west London. He was born in 1847, and married firstly in 1872 Laura, the fifth daughter of Sir Michael Hicks Hicks-Beach, the eighth baronet, who lived in Gloucester. She died in 1874.

Secondly he married Constance, the daughter of the late John Henry Elwes of Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire.

He was a D. L. (Doctor of Law) and a Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

He lived in a large house called Highgrove, just outside Tetbury in Gloucestershire. This house was purchased about 30 years ago by the then Charles, Prince of Wales, now our King Charles III.

That area is a good shooting area, so it could be him??

Bon chance!

HB