From long before the 1745 Uprising, O'Shaughnessy embraced the notion of the smallsword, but not its normal form and function. Among the stock left over from Armlann Gàidhealach were only four normal smallswords with triangular blades of 32 inches, and a dozen more that resembled scaled-down rapiers with blades that had diamond cross sections and sharp edges. Hawkins identifies them as the "wee claybegs" mentioned in inventories (although O'Shaughnessy moved to Edinburgh from western Ireland and her personal
documents are in some undecipherable non-Irish script, her letters in
Britain and Armlann Gàidhealach's records were all written in
Scots) and asserts that O'Shaughnessy's and her daughter Ciara's personal swords were of this type.
They strongly resemble the so-called pillow or scarf swords of the previous century, with very short blades (as little as 24 inches) and no knucklebows or finger rings. They were made with a pattern of lightweight rapier blade called a smalle Doljch, which O'Shaughnessy and MacNeill imported from Solingen, where they were made by the small workshop of Hoffmann Schwieets. In Edinburgh, they were shortened from the point and tang end to eliminate the long ricasso and produce a delicate little blade.
I am currently saving up for a standard-pattern "wee claybeg," but I wanted to first get ahold of this absolutely unique variant. It was created in January 1746 along with a dagger and miniature targe for Andrew Aldridge of Beinn Sgleatach, who, however, did not accept or pay for them. This is a good thing, since I wouldn't want to own anything he had owned, for reasons that will become clear.
The blade is a kort Doljch, a shortened version of Hoffmann's earlier heavy rapier pattern, which was also used in pillow swords. O'Shaughnessy seems to have produced this sword as a more battle-worthy version of the wee claybeg, as not only the blade but also the fittings are more massive and sturdier. Hawkins tells me that the matching targe is only 11-1/2 inches wide, which I would normally consider too small for a strapped shield unless the wielder's forearm with closed fist is itself less than 11-1/2 inches from elbow to knuckles. I've usually read that targes were at least 16 inches wide at the smallest; the last one I obtained is this size and feels barely wide enough for me. A strapped shield smaller than that not only provides less protection in general, but, if shorter than the wielder's forearm, would run the risk of allowing blows that strike between the 6 to 8 or 10 to 12 o'clock positions to skate around and strike the elbow or upper arm, and give no protection at all to a sideways blow in line with the elbow. That's why usually the only shields this small are center-gripped, like bucklers or dhals. A tiny strapped shield and short sword only make sense in the hands of someone who was fast enough to get close to an opponent while avoiding their attacks or receiving them in such a way as to avoid being injured.
This actually appears to have been the case. O'Shaughnessy described Aldridge to the Hawkinses as "five fit lang yet unco bonnie an' byous swith." (O'Shaughnessy seems to have been a secret admirer of his, perhaps because she was very short as well.) This letter seems to have been the source of James McKay's description of him in "The children of Ailpean" as "Five feet tall and swift of foot." A popular joke about Aldridge was that his mother, whose identity isn't known, was of the Unseelie. McKay himself was present at Culloden as a lieutenant under Colonel Cornelius Ridge, Aldridge's English cousin. Near the end of the battle Aldridge, who had been saving his last bullet for Ridge, shot at him but only hit his horse. The two then charged at each other with swords, with Ridge very nearly losing the duel due to Aldridge's terrifying speed. Aldridge was only defeated when half a dozen soldiers under Lieutenant Paul Hurt (later a Captain and later still husband of Sylvia Hawkins) surrounded and fired on him all at once. An infuriated Ridge then took McKay's pistol and finished off his injured cousin. In describing the incident to Ridge's nephew Corporal Robert Ridge (who joined the regiment after Cornelius' "suicide" in 1755) McKay claimed that he saw two shadowy little phantoms appear above Aldridge's body, one a woman with long hair who dragged the other away by the hand, and what he described as the laughter of many thin voices like tin whistles heard far away. It was the terror of this experience, as much as the moral repugnance of the Duke's orders, that made McKay and Hurt refuse to participate in the execution of wounded Jacobites after the battle. For this they were both dismissed, though their commissions were reinstated several months later.
It was also this experience that inspired "The children of Ailpean," which described how Ailpean Aldridge and all his descendants were cursed due to a fight between him and the Unseelie princess Cornelia. It is a matter of historical record that all his descendants on both sides of the border died before the age of 50 and violently. The sole possible exception is Andrew's father Geoffrey, who dropped dead shortly after Culloden, and even this McKay attributed to being slain by fairy-shot by Cornelia herself, whom his poem casts as the mother of Andrew and the phantom who dragged Andrew's soul away to join the Unseelie. Cornelius Ridge's "suicide" was rumored to have been murder at the hands of his lieutenant colonel and successor, Sir Laurence Pemberton. Even Robert Ridge would die in the French and Indian War at the age of 25 when his company was ambushed in the woods west of Cayuga Lake. What became of Andrew's possessions is unknown, but "The children of Ailpean" ends with O'Shaughnessy burning Andrew's body, sword and shield on a pyre and burying the remains in an old mound in Beinn Sgleatach to break the curse.
So how do I have these? Armlann Gàidhealach actually made two swords, and a number of other weapons, for Aldridge. These were listed in invoices as "1 short claybeg or 1 wee claybeg," "1 short claymore w. half-basket" "1 wee targaid w. strap," "1 wee targaid w. nae strap," "1 wee dirk w. chip knife," "1 wee dagger" and "2 belts." (What O'Shaughnessy calls a "chip" knife is what we'd call a by-knife, a miniature version of a general-purpose belt knife with a curved cutting edge, carried in a side pocket of a larger blade's sheath or scabbard. Don't ask me where she got the word "chip" from. Although "chib" is a modern Scottish word related to "shiv," these are borrowings from Romani and not attested before the 20th century, so they're unlikely to be related to O'Shaughnessy's "chip." There's also a modern style called a chip knife or chip carving knife, but it has a specialized woodcarving blade with a straight cutting edge and curved spine, so, again, it's probably not related.) The ones he actually bought were the claymore, the targe with no strap, the dirk and its by-knife, and one of the belts. I can only guess what the claymore looked like, but I suspect the targe without a strap was identical to the remaining one except with a central, probably rigid grip, and that he chose it in order to give himself greater freedom to use it like a center-gripped buckler, eliminating the aforementioned problems with a small strapped shield. The short claybeg with its matching belt, small targe with strap and small dagger comprise the part of the assemblage that he didn't buy. I have them reserved but they won't join my collection until I can pay for them. The dirk, on the other hand, was a unique piece that I'm working on reproducing from drawings; you'll see it shortly.
The blade for this sword was custom made for me by Darkwood Armory. For process pics and other information on this project, click here.
