Windus Pattern 1771 flintlock musket manufactured by Henshaw. This musket has the United East India Company (EIC) mark which consists of a heart quartered by a St. Andrew's cross stamped on the lock plate and right side of the stock. The heart contains the EIC initials V, E, I, and C, and is surmounted "4" (the "4" was initially a cross but was altered to avoid offending the EIC Muslim soldiers). The lock plate is dated "1779" between the EIC mark and the hammer and engraved with the maker's name "HENSHAW" ahead of the hammer. The EIC "Crown/W" proofmark is stamped on the lock below the band and on the top of the barrel. The lock plate has a convex surface with integral iron pan with high fence with the goose neck hammer utilized until 1809. The musket has a 39-inch round, .75 caliber, smoothbore barrel with block bayonet lug/front sight. The musket has a steel, button head ramrod with two flared brass ramrod pipes and brass tail pipe. The English walnut stock has a brass end-cap, convex brass side plate with no tail, brass trigger guard with simplified upper finial and brass buttplate. The stock is not fitted with the brass escutcheon plate on the wrist found on Short Land Brown Bess muskets. Iron sling swivels are located on the forearm and trigger guard. The barrel breech is stamped with Henshaw's "VH" inspection mark. A rack number consisting on an underlined number "7" is engraved on the top of the buttplate. "B" is branded in the stock between the trigger guard finial and the toe of the buttplate. The Windus Pattern 1777 Infantry Musket was a shorter, simplified version of the Short Land Pattern Brown Bess Musket. It was adopted by the EIC to arm the native infantry (Sepoys) maintained by the Company in India. With the outbreak of war with the French Republic in 1793, the British Army urgently required muskets and purchased 30,000 Pattern 1771 muskets from the EIC. The Pattern 1771 was subsequently adopted by the Board of Ordnance as the India Pattern Tower Musket. Surviving examples are scarce.

Good. This musket is in the original flintlock configuration. The barrel and lock have a very attractive, untouched, brown patina. There is light pitting along the top of the barrel and heavier flash pitting near the touchhole. The barrel tang is cracked. The lock plate, hammer, pan and steel have an attractive, gray-brown patina. The Windus inspection mark, maker's name, 1779 date and EIC bale are sharp. The lightly varnished stock is in good overall condition with moderate service wear. There are several chips and splinters along the edges of the barrel channel. The right side of the stock has a clear EIC storekeeper's mark. The brass forearm cap, ramrod pipes, sideplate and buttplate have not been polished and have an attractive aged patina. The action is crisp and fully functional. This is a good example of a scarce and historically significant Brown Bess musket.