The Expert Sword-Man's Companion (Donald McBane, 1728)

The Expert Sword-Man's Companion is a printed book written in English, published in 1728 in Glasgow by the printer James Duncan. Its author is the Scottish soldier and fencer Donald McBane (1664 Inverness – 12 April 1732), who was around 64 at the time of publication. Besides "the true art of self-defence", the full title promises an account of the author's life and his service in the wars with France, and an annexed treatise on artillery (Art of Gunnerie). The book thus combines three parts: the author's memoirs, an extensive fencing treatise and a section on artillery. The fencing instruction concerns the small sword and the broad, single-edged sword (broad sword, back sword). The memoir part includes a description of the campaigns under the Duke of Marlborough. The author states in the book that he fought almost a hundred duels and 37 paid fights in London. Among his opponents he names James Miller, Timothy Buck and James Figg. These claims come from his own account and we have not been able to corroborate them from other sources. The historian J. D. Aylward called the memoir part "perhaps the most candid autobiography in the English language" and Alfred Hutton called McBane a first-class fencer. The book appears in the surveys Schools and Masters of Fence by Egerton Castle (1892) and The Sword and the Centuries by Alfred Hutton (1901). According to the English Wikipedia, it is among the main sources for the study of Scottish fencing.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

The book's military and fencing material arises from the author's own career. In 1687 McBane left an apprenticeship with a tobacco spinner and joined the Scottish army. He served, among other places, at Steenkerque (1692) and Namur (1695), and in the War of the Spanish Succession he went through a total of 15 skirmishes and 16 battles, among them Blenheim (1704) and Malplaquet (1709). In 1715 he was a sergeant of dragoons. Alongside his service he founded a fencing school in Limerick and, after about twenty duels with rival masters, another school in the Netherlands. The paid fights he writes about took place in the London arenas Hockley-in-the-Hole and Marybone Fields. As late as 1726, aged 63, he fought a duel in Edinburgh, two years before the book was published.

Editions and translations

The first edition appeared in 1728 in Glasgow from the printer James Duncan under the full title The Expert Sword-Man's Companion: Or the True Art of Self-Defence. With an Account of the Authors Life, and his Transactions during the Wars with France. To which is Annexed, the Art of Gunnerie. Ben Kerr prepared a modern reproduction. It contains a transcription of the whole text and reproductions of all the original plates, and appeared as a paperback via Lulu. We have not been able to confirm the year of its publication in the sources, and we did not find the number of plates in the original edition or the division of the treatise into chapters.

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Details

Form

Printed book

Editions

• 1728 · EN · The Expert Sword-Man's Companion · James Duncan · first edition
• EN · The Expert Sword-Man's Companion · Lulu