AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: spgordon on September 13, 2013, 02:20:17 PM
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Is much known about Joseph Perkins (beyond what Dr. Whisker prints in his short entry on him in Arms Makers of Colonial America)?
I recently came across this exchange in which Henry Laurens in Charleston asks John Ettwein in Bethlehem to supply him with a rifle:
Henry Laurens to John Ettwein, September 1787:
Shall I request you My Dear Friend to give direction to your best Gunsmith to make for me as Neat, Light and good a Rifle barreled Gun as he can afford for Five Guineas, with Mould &c.
John Ettwein to Henry Laurens, November 1787:
I gave Direction to Mr. Joseph Perkins here in Philadelphia, a member of our Church, and a very good Gunsmith to make for you as neat, light & good a rifle bored Gun with Mould as he can possibly make for the Price of 5 Guineas.
It looks like Perkins sent his eleven year old daughter to the Bethlehem girls' school in 1794.
And I see that a barrel of his was appraised on Antiques Roadshow a decade ago:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200302A13.html
Scott
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OK, answering my own question, looks like there's information about Perkins/Perkin in:
Merritt Roe Smith, Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology (1977) and in
Rick Hudak, Harpers Ferry Arsenal and Joseph Perkin (2012).
Has anybody looked at Hudak's book?
Scott
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There is an article "An Officer's Flintlock Pistol by Joseph Perkin of Philadelphia" that I did for the February, 2010 issue of Man At Arms that has a lot of background on Joseph Perkin.
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Thanks, Frank. Any way I can get a copy of that article? -- Scott (spg4@lehigh.edu)
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It's on the way.
Frank
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Interesting that Perkins sometimes dropped the 's' off the end of his name. The Christian Oerter 'griffin' rifle has a lock made by him, marked 'I Perkin', yet it shows up elsewhere as 'Perkins.' Wonder if he ever made a complete gun or just parts? Anyone?
Dick
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The fine flintlock officer's pistol referenced in my Man At Arms article that was owned by Geo. Washington's Quartermaster Samuel Hodgdon is marked "I. Perkin Philad a" on the barrel and the lock is marked "I. Perkin".
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Sounds like he did, then. Thanks Frank! If you ever have a camera in your hand I bet that there are bunch of folks here who would like to see it,
Dick
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In the 1787 instance quoted above, where Ettwein is supplying Henry Laurens with a gun, it certainly sounds as if Perkin/s is making the complete rifle.
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Here is Perkin's inventory of items necessary to stock Harper's Ferry arsenal (August 20, 1798):
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi43.tinypic.com%2F315dhte.jpg&hash=84a33ab8dbb9bc98139b232f18c1d823cd7ee33f) (https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.tinypic.com%2F155t4k4.jpg&hash=d4b87d4388a2a485cf17b181be79e5ea1d343f8e)
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi41.tinypic.com%2F2f096di.jpg&hash=fd9d53d69e03181c0614a0a64c65c2445aaa6bdc)
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I wish that I could show some images here of the Perkin pistol. I did not own it and my saved pictures of it were wiped out in a computer mishap last year. It is shown in some of the old books - it has been known for a while.
Frank
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I have always had my doubts about wether the english style Perkin guns were actually made in Philly or imported from England with the Perkin gun added either here or there.
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Mr. Gordon,
Thanks for showing the inventory. It makes for a good read. I am amazed at the number of different style of files they needed. Also, there are two items of which I have no idea what they are and was wondering if you could help explain them. They are (5) Turkey Oilstones, at least I think that is what it says and 10 Hubirons. do you know what these are?
Van
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I don't know what either of those items might be! But I'm confident that, if anybody knows, it is somebody on this forum!
Scott
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The Turkey oilstone is a natural bluish stone found in Asia Minor. They made excellent whetsones and were popular in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. Google is your friend. :) Can't help you with hubirons.
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Perhaps "hubiron" = "hub iron" or "iron hub." Does that make it any more decipherable in a gun making context?
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I have always had my doubts about wether the english style Perkin guns were actually made in Philly or imported from England with the Perkin gun added either here or there.
Mike,
I'm curious about that also. I have a .45 cal double rifle with locks signed Perkins in script. Inside they are stamped with a small H&H. The barrels have absolutely no proof marks, but everything else appears to be English.
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I have always had my doubts about wether the English style Perkin guns were actually made in Philly or imported from England with the Perkin gun added either here or there.
Touche Mike. I seriously doubt they were made here...
And... Perkin died around 1804. At that time, the only mandatory proof in England pertained to domestic sales in London and Middlesex county, in the purview of the London Gunmaker's Company. No other proof was required by law although it was the overwhelming custom. There was never any requirement for proof of arms leaving the country. For that matter, I'm not even sure there is today.
Perkin was English, from Birmingham, a place where the trade had already become fantastically specialized before he was born. No B'ham gunsmith actually made all the parts of a gun because it simply wasn't economically viable. But, he would have know where to get what he wanted and he had the professional expertise to get the best value for his money. By the end of the 18th century the very term "gunmaker" specifically excluded the actual making of guns and was applied to those who arranged their manufacture and sold them.
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Is Joseph Perkins the father of George Perkins who made shotguns in Birmingham in the
mid 19th century?
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Probably not. I say that because he emigrated quite early and most emigrants brought their families (if they had any) with them. But he's probably a relation, maybe an uncle or great-uncle.
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Thanks for your support on my theory JVP. I'm just smart enough to be dangerous with this stuff...... ;)
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For those of you interested in Perkin, I did some digging at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem today.
Perkin was born on 17 February 1737. I did not find any information about when he emigrated or when he joined the church, because the Philadelphia Moravian Church records are incomplete before 1776, though I suspect with a bit more work this information could be found. But if as has been noted in print Perkin emigrated in 1774, he would have been 37 or so and could have had children while in England who remained there.
Perkin was a widower in 1778; unclear whether his wife had died in England or whether she accompanied him to America and died here. He was remarried on 10 June 1779 to Willhemina Heuman (pronounced Heyman). They had several children: John (b. 16 March 1781), Maria Henrietta (b. 28 January 1783), Henry Heyman (b. 24 July 1786), and Juliana (b. 15 January 1791, died 2 days later).
I think Joseph Perkin left Philadelphia late in 1793. Willhemina did not join her husband in Virginia until 1794, at which point the children seem to have scattered. John Perkin, who would have been about 13, may have remained in Philadelphia; Maria Henrietta went for schooling to Bethlehem. Not sure where Henry Heyman went. Joseph Perkin himself died in December 1806.
John Perkin, the eldest son, became a Philadelphia physician (and died in 1834). He and his wife had a number of sons--one named, interestingly, Marine Tyler Wickham Perkin, born on 14 July 1820.
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Interesting that Perkins name sometimes shows up without the s as Jacob Kuntz, also from Philadelphia, sometimes shows up without the t. There are probably others as well.
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Here, by the way, is an advertisement Perkin placed in the Virginia Herald as he headed south from Pennsylvania to establish the Virginia armory.
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi41.tinypic.com%2F2nhl3et.jpg&hash=a14fba1d449320c26851c86a9c5dc0a1c86e86e9)
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Master Perkin had incredible handwriting skill.
dp
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I have examined and photographed that Joseph Perkins barrel. It was found in an old barn not far from here before it was pushed over & burned down. It was covered in really cool engraved figures, animals, faces, tomahawk etc.
Darrin