Motto: "No King But Jesus"

[C. Cash]

Newbie question so please forgive my ignorance on the matter.  Can anyone tell me if you have seen this motto on vintage Pennsylvania longrifles?   How about any from the "Lancaster" school?   I have heard that it appeared on rifles tied to the period of the American Revolution, but have never personally seen it(I have little experience...have never even held an original PA rifle pre-1800).  I would love to hear what ya'll have witnessed.   The question is interesting  to me for two reasons.  One, I would like to know how prevelant it was as it would say something about what those who fought for America held as important.    Two, I am having a rifle built and would be very interested in having this motto engraved on it...will probably do it anyway regardless of how historically accurate it is...but just curious.

[Fullstock longrifle]

I personally have never seen that saying on an antique longrifle, but with that said, someone else may have.

What I have seen, are the letters I N R I (Jesus of Nazareth King of The Jews) engraved on the bottom barrel flat of rifles made by J. P. Beck, Christian Beck and Nicholas Beyer. All worked in Lancaster County (later Lebanon County) Pennsylvania.

Frank

[Stophel]

I don't think you really see a lot of mottoes of any kind.  Sometimes "Liberty or Death" or that sort of thing.  I think the "I was free born" gun is probably as close as you might get.

[famouseagle]

Kindig shows a few.  #37 has a patchbox with a serpent motif and "Don't tread on me" engraved on the side plates.

A more cryptic "motto" is shown on the patchbox of #255.  It's an arrow and the word "Death".

Lindsay's "The Kentucky Rifle" shows a Simon Lauck rifle that has a silver sun inlay with a partial brass "eclipse".  Underneath is engraved "the sunin cleps".

[C. Cash]

Thanks fellas.  From reading the forum for a few years, I suspected that things might be more subtle on these rifles, but wasn't sure.   I've heard of the INRI markings but never knew what they meant exactly.  Thank you for the clarification!

[flintriflesmith]

From what I have seen there are more such statements of personal feelings or faith on powder horns than on rifles. Maybe this is because most rifles were made and engraved by the smith while many horns were decorated by the owner.

There is another famous statement on a rifle, "United States We Are One" on the cheek inlay of a rifle captured in the Carolinas and taken to England. See R.C.A.

Gary

[Fullstock longrifle]

Next time you see a crucifix, look at the small banner at the top of the cross over the head of Jesus.  It has the letters I N R I on it, that must be where J. P. Beck got it from.  Christian Beck and Nicholas Beyer just continued with the tradition.  I'm not sure why they did it on some barrels and not on others.  Anybody have any ideas on that?

Frank

[woodsrunner]

Neither have I ever seen this on any original, Pennsylvania or Southern piece. As Stophel points out the "Free Born" rifle owned by Tom Patton comes the closest to what you ask. The statement "I Was Freeborn" along with the Biblical references is so "Freemasonish" that it instantly stands out. My own personal thoughts about this is that the patch box engraving is most probably what caught the eye of the Hessien soldier who picked this piece up off the battlefield and most probably traded it to the English officer who took it back to England. Both were most probably Freemasons as was the maker of the rifle and the individual it was made for. We'll never know, though!

[RobertS]

Seems to me that I have seen "No King but King Jesus" inscribed on something, though it may have been some contemporary piece.  In Madison Grant's book The Kentucky Rifle Hunting Pouch there is a reference on page 130 of Charles Goodnight's rifle, which had engraved on the barrel "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you" with a photo of the rifle on page 131, though it is a halfstock, rather than a longrifle.  Great question, though, and it's generated a lot of interesting discussion.

[Randy Hedden]

The phrase, "Recognize no sovereign but God and no king but Jesus Christ"  has been attributed to the Reverend Jonas Clarke in a benediction given on Lexington Green on April, 19, 1775 shortly before the Colonists confronted the British troops.

I like the words so much that I built a powder horn around the saying. The pictures are a little fuzzy, but it will give you the idea.

Randy Hedden



More pictures of this horn can be seen at www.harddogrifles.com or

http://www.harddogrifles.com/main.php?g2_itemId=84

[C. Cash]

I personally have never seen that saying on an antique longrifle, but with that said, someone else may have.

What I have seen, are the letters I N R I (Jesus of Nazareth King of The Jews) engraved on the bottom barrel flat of rifles made by J. P. Beck, Christian Beck and Nicholas Beyer. All worked in Lancaster County (later Lebanon County) Pennsylvania.

Frank

That is interesting that they put it on the bottom flat.  I suppose it was a very personal matter to them.   Here is a neat website that goes along with the INRI info given:

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t024.html

Makes sense about the horn being more personal than the gun.
Randy Hedden...that is a beautiful horn! Appreciate the pic and all the info fellas.

[keweenaw]

Ken Scott put the No King but Jesus motto on the flap of one of his hunting pouches.

[blunderbuss]

I've seen fish inlayed on long rifles, many times three, as a Christian symbol. I recently worked on a original Jaeger that had two "X's" on the bottom to remove hexes

[Scott Bumpus]

Steve Zihn put the phrase on the rifle he built for the cowboy church.  search his posts for pictures.  It is a really nice rifle.

[msmith]

The Christian influence & Symbolism on gunmakers was discussed here before...If you do a search you should be able to find a lively discussion,if I remember right I think was when the article in "Early American Life" came out.....Check out page 8 in April 2009 issue of "Early American Life" The Romance of the Kentucky Rifle, by Lorentz Kafa.....I would guess that his interpretations may be controversial, but interesting none the least..Also check out "Pennsylvania German Folklore Society" Volume II 1937 & Vol IX 1944...I found my copies on amazon or one of those used book sites...You will be happy with them..

[smokinbuck]

Bill Large used to put sayings on a lot of his barrels but they were not usually religous in nature!!
Mark

[Buck]

 I have seen 2 different engravings. A rifle that I had sold recently had INRI engraved on the bottom of the barrel. The barrel an the hardware were pre 1800 but it was restocked in post civil war. I have a rifle by G. Feder it seems that there are several ideas as to where this maker resided, This rifle has all of the Berks county charactristics, the Roman Nose profile, the upper and lower platesidentical to Peter Angstadts, 13 silver inlays engraved with tulips. The toe plate is engraved with tulips and it extends from the butt plate to the trigger guard. Everything that Kindig described about this maker is on this rifle, but several of my mentors claim that this maker is from Lancaster. Out of curiosity last weekend I removed the barrel abd found the name Pannabecker but could not make out the first name abbreviation. On the very bottom of the barrel there is an engraving of a P through an X which is another cristian symbol for Christ. Along with that there is a silver inlay of the 8 pointed star inside the All Seeing Eye, which is a maonic symbol, this sits just above the cheek rest. To the rear of the cheek rest is a pierced piece of brass that has 10 pyramids with a crane. Seems to me these men were very devout. Buck