William Henry of Lancaster

[spgordon]

I am writing to ask whether list members are aware of any rifles or muskets currently attributed to William Henry (1729-1786) of Lancaster.

Fifty years ago, in his Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, Henry Kauffman writes of a gun "on display at the location of the Lancaster County Historical Association. The lock of this gun is signed by Wm. Henry, who was armorer to Braddock on his ill-fated expedition to Western Pennsylvania, and was a gunsmith in Lancaster. Stylistically, it is a copy, or closely related to, the British Brown Bess of the period. It has a round barrel, a walnut stock, a long tapering wrist and a high comb. It is difficult to name a specific date when this gun was made, but there seems to be a complete agreement among informed collectors that this musket was made by Henry about the time of the American Revolution" (91-92).

http://books.google.com/books?id=tFuN-JNoOhkC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=%22Lancaster+County+Historical+Society%22+%2B+musket&source=bl&ots=v4zRgZyqCS&sig=DDN3L4KeSmVNWujgiBiLIwoXvos&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MgMwT9XZHcbn0QH00LzjCg&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA

I suspect that attribution has been discarded, but I don't know of any printed source other than Kauffman that discusses this gun.

I don't know of any other book or article that discusses or pictures a rifle or musket signed by, or attributed to, William Henry of Lancaster.

My opinion--based on archival research, not on an inspection of the actual guns--is that any lock signed "Wm Henry" would date from the later generations of Henrys. But if this is not the case, I am eager to learn.

If anybody would know of guns attributed to Henry, it would be the folks on this forum!

Thanks in advance. -- Scott

[mkeen]

Scott:

In Wood and Whisker's 1991 Arms Makers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania look on page 3. A photograph of a gun identified as William Henry, Senior is shown. It is listed as courtesy of Howard H. Reist. I cannot tell if it is the same gun pictured in Kauffman's book, but it could be.

Martin Keen

[eastwind]

I considered adding the Henry rifle in the collections of the Historical Society of Lancaster County, the one signed on the lock, to the LANCASTER LONG RIFLE EXHIBIT opening this Spring at the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster. However, it shows no other evidence in detail or date to be a Henry rifle, and appears to be a restock using a Henry lock.
In the Exhibit we do have the Henry rifle, signed on both barrel and lock which is part of the Jacobsburg Historical Society collection. This gun is reputed to be the only early Henry rifle signed in both places.
While the Henry factory and its founder (William Henry) are well researched and studied, their is no concrete evidence that William Henry ever personally  made a rifle, except perhaps when he was apprenticed to Matthew Roesser. He was certainly an active entrepreneur and his name appearing on rifles is more likely to be guns made in one of his factories.

Hope you can all get to the Exhibit opening March 11, 2012 featuring 65 Lancaster made firearms... and buy the book accompanying the Exhibit
Patrick Hornberger
Guest Curator

[spgordon]

Thanks Martin and Patrick for these replies. I'm very excited for the exhibit at the Landis Valley Museum!

The Jacobsburg rifle may very well be the only early Henry rifle signed on the lock and the barrel--but which Henrys made it and how "early"? It is, I believe, marked "J & W Henry" on the lock and "W Henry" on the barrel, so it has no connection, it seems very likely, with William Henry of Lancaster. The "J & W Henry" lock has to date from the partnership between William Henry II and his son J. Joseph Henry (or maybe even later, to the partnership between J. Joseph Henry and his brother, William III).

I agree with Patrick's point that there "is no concrete evidence that William Henry [of Lancaster] ever personally made a rifle." I'd go further and say there was no "Henry factory" in Lancaster (and no guns produced by any Lancaster "Henry factory" with the Henry name on them), despite the fact that secondary sources often state that there was. My opinion is that Henry had no involvement in the gun industry after 1760. He did not have a gun factory in the 1760s, despite what most secondary sources say. And, during the Revolution, he had no direct involvement in the gun industry (i.e., making guns or directly supervising others who did so), except as a financier and procurement officer--which is to say that his involvement with guns was no different than his involvement with shoes or flour or many other items. In fact, it would have been illegal for him to supply to the Continental Army guns of his own making while he was a procurement officer: this was considered corruption and others were charged and tried for such practices. (I realize this may be controversial. I try to make the case, with a lot of evidence, in an article that should be out in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography this summer.)

Any guns with "W. Henry" on the locks or barrels were made/used by William Henry of Nazareth, not by his father--at least that's what I think the evidence, so far, shows.

Scott

[eddillon]

Any thoughts or opinions about the "Nazareth" pistol pictured in S.E. Dykes book?
Ed

[spgordon]

The interesting thing about those pistols--I assume we're talking about the ones pictured in Dyke that were at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania?--is that they are signed "Nazareth" on the barrel but "Wm. Henry, Jr." on the lock. This means they were made by William Henry of Nazareth (William Henry II) before his father's death in 1786 and after 1781 when he opened his shop in Nazareth. After 1786, William Henry II's son became "William Henry, Jr."

Also interesting is that an unpublished 1807 letter (from one of his brothers to William Henry of Nazareth) describes "a pair of pistols, silver mounted, which you made & presented to our father when you were a young-man." I don't know whether the Historical Society of Pennsylvania pistols could be these pistols.

Dyke mentions in Thoughts on the American Flintlock Pistol that he went through 50 or so gunsmiths' inventories  and, when pistols were listed in them, "assumed that [they] were made by" the gunsmiths. He includes a "Wm Henry" in his list and dates the inventory to 1790. This date is incorrect, but he is referring to Wm Henry of Lancaster's inventory (1787), which lists "one pair of Silver mounted pistols." They were sold at his vendue (to his son, John Joseph Henry [not the gunsmith]). So, in this case, Dyke mistook a pair of pistols presented to William Henry of Lancaster for a pair of pistols that he himself made.

Scott