J. Hayden,,Gunsmith,,Retailer,,??

[kutter]

I bought a pair of percussion shotgun locks with the name 'J. Hayden' engraved on both plates.
The left lock is damaged,,the stirrup is missing and the tumbler is broken where it links up.
The right lock is nice condition.
What caught my eye was the 3 pin bridle,,something I usually see only on higher grade guns.

I wasn't familiar with the name, thought it might be European, English, Belgian, ect.
Nothing in any book I have
I can't find any reference to it other than one for an Ohio gunsmith in the percussion era.

Would this be something that Ohio gunsmith would have built or perhaps just put his name on to resell?
I don't have any idea what the rest of the gun looked like,,just bought the lock(s) in a plastic bag.
I thought the good one would make up a nice percussion rifle w/a patent breech.




Top pic makes it look severely rusted, but it isn't really that bad. Shouldn't have used the flash I guess.

Thanks for any info.

[Longknife]

Kutter, Here is some info on Hayden...

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=1273.0

[JV Puleo]

I suspect the gun was English made, marked with his name for resale. He may have marked it or, I think it is more likely that it was marked thus when made as part of an order for several guns. This would have been the normal way of doing business. There was no money to be made in making locks when they were available on the open market for less than anyone in America could make them... its also likely that Mr. Hayden got the locks for his rifles from the same sources.