AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: spgordon on June 17, 2023, 11:26:36 PM
-
In 1870, in a volume called Memorials of the Moravian Church, William Reichel printed the many invoices that the Moravians submitted to Pennsylvania to get repaid for all the work they did for provincial troops (and others) from June 1756 to October 1757. (https://archive.org/details/memorialsofmorav00reic/page/228/mode/2up?view=theater) These invoices document lots of repair work done on rifles of provincial soldiers, as well as on rifles owned by Indigenous people. The original documents from which Reichel printed these accounts are at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem.
It turns out, though, other accounts survive--also at the Moravian Archives, but not with the batch that Reichel printed. These accounts are from earlier in 1756 and from 1758 and 1761. They're very detailed about the sort of work done and the amount charged for each repair. Here's a sample from April and May, and then October, 1758:
(https://i.ibb.co/5vCR1Mz/IMG-7234.jpg) (https://ibb.co/zbC4mnL)
(https://i.ibb.co/yh7kb3h/IMG-7235.jpg) (https://ibb.co/VH5CPKH)
(https://i.ibb.co/93Y5PPb/IMG-7236.jpg) (https://ibb.co/wr6mttS)
(https://i.ibb.co/CHxt26n/IMG-7237.jpg) (https://ibb.co/5Rq9Fk5)
-
Scott,
As always, thank you very much for bringing this to the site. Always very interesting.
VP
-
Scott this is great information. Everyone, including me, is always interested in the Rev War period so it is a treat to see something from the Seven Years War period.
I'd be interested in similar documents from either before 1756 or after 1763 to compare the levels of activity for pre war and post war with what we see in these wartime documents.
Thanks for posting all of this!
Kent
-
I'd be interested in similar documents from either before 1756 or after 1763 to compare the levels of activity for pre war and post war with what we see in these wartime documents.
We all would! Unfortunately, we have never found a daybook that would reveal the work that the gunsmith in Bethlehem or, later, Christiansbrunn did.
We have annual inventories for the Christiansbrunn gunshop, but these documents only reveal the tools and material in the shop at the end of May each year. So they cannot tell us much. If, for instance, the 1769 inventory were to note "four rifles" and the 1770 inventory were to note "four rifles," there's no way to know whether the shop produced no rifles during the course of that year (these are the same "four rifles") or whether the shop produced ten rifles and sold ten rifles (leaving the same number for the inventory). These annual inventories just don't capture the sort of daily work, especially repair work, that the gunsmiths were engaged in.
We can know about some of the work that the gunsmith did from scattered records in other ledgers, which might charge somebody for a gun being mended or a rifle being stocked. But these notations are scattered and few and surely do not capture much of the work being done.
Until a daybook surfaces ... we don't have anything to compare these records to. (And, it's important to note: this only records the repair work that the Bethlehem gunsmith and blacksmith were doing for the Province. Other work that these laborers were doing at the same time isn't captured here.)
-
Interesting that it seems that thimbles are called brass ramrod loops. New to me! I might start using that.
-
Kinda of a catchy name brass ramrod loops. I like it too.
-
I wonder if "making a brass guard" meant casting and filling, or just filing up an existing casting?
-
I wonder if "making a brass guard" meant casting and filling, or just filing up an existing casting?
We can only speculate but perhaps they would have said “fitting” a brass guard if they were using an existing casting.
-
Neat Scott! Interesting to read how new locks were fitted to “old stocks” that long ago. If we looked at those refitted guns today I doubt we would recognize the locks not being orignal. Goes to show how few surviving guns still have their first locks.
-
Neat Scott! Interesting to read how new locks were fitted to “old stocks” that long ago. If we looked at those refitted guns today I doubt we would recognize the locks not being orignal. Goes to show how few surviving guns still have their first locks.
If I recall correctly, there was an article published in Man at Arms magazine during the first year of the magazine's "life" titled Committe of Safety Musket ?-Prove It!.
Now collectors and arms students can say, Original Flintlock Longrifle?-Prove it! ::)
-
great stuff, thanks for sharing! Steeling the tomahawks is pretty cool too!
-
The account of the first store in Bethlehem includes Powder horns and shot bags, as items "homemade" by the Moravians and available for purchase. I have suspected the Lehigh style horns from Art Decamps book could have been Moravian produced. They have been collected in the same region and show excellent craftsmanship. Just my 2c