Allentown Armourers Store, 1778-1779

[spgordon]

Earlier today, at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg, I was slogging through the Northampton County records in the Comptroller General Accounts--which contain the documents that have survived related to the Offices of the County Lieutenants and so contain most of the records related to militia service during the Revolution.

I came across a document (badly microfilmed, sadly) that is titled "A General Return of the Arms &c Receivd at the Armourers Store at Allentown, Since August [1778] and an Account of What Remained in the Store Per Last Return" & "A "General Account of Arms, &c. Delivered out of the Armourers Store at Allentown Since August [1778]." I am not sure whether those folks who have researched this factory have come across this document? In case not ....

Some of it is hard to read (see image below), but it seems to record:

August 16, 1778
Remained in Store since last Return                   7 pistols, 876 Muskets & Bayonets, 302 Bayonets, 5 Carbines

October 23, 1778
[Received] of Col Hagner Sub Lt. of City of P                       79 Muskets & Bayonets, 33 Bayonets
December 8, 1778
[Received] of John Tyler [Arms Sold to State?]                                                         148 Bayonets

                                          Totals                          7 pistols, 955 Muskets & Bayonets, 483 Bayonets, 5 Carbines
                                        Delivered out                                323 Muskets & Bayonets, 315 Bayonets
                    Total Remaining at Store                  7 pistols, 632 Muskets & Bayonets, 168 Bayonets, 5 Carbines


The other side of the document records to whom the arms were delivered:

Aug 17 1778    To Col Hagner Sub Lt of City P         265 Muskets, 265 Bayonets
Aug 17 1778    To Col Wetzell Lt. of North. C.            50 Muskets, 50 Bayonets
Nov 18 1778    To Col. Hagner Sub Lt                           8 Muskets

                                                    total                       323 Muskets, 315 Bayonets

The document then records:

"State of the Arms in Store":

297   Muskets & Bayonets in Repair
2      Beat [?] guns without Bayonets in Repair
151 Good Muskett Barrells fitt to Stock
16 Good Rifle Barrells fitt to Stock
166 Barrels most of which are not worth Stocking
-----
632  Total of Muskets & Rifles & Barrells in Store

N.B. Locks Bayonets & Mounting wanting to the good Barrells

204 Guns [Received without?] Locks
119 Locks with worth Repairing
      
Here's the document itself (in its poorly microfilmed version). It is (usually) possible to obtain from the State Archives a scan of the original, which would be much better quality, for a reasonable fee.

[jdm]

Nice bit on info.   Thanks for posting.  JIM

[spgordon]

It is too bad that the document does not list payments to workers in the factory ... which would help resolve the controversy over who did work there ... -- Scott

[Eric Kettenburg]

I don;t think I've seen that one before - I'll have to double check but I think it's different from one of the returns that I have.  GREAT FIND!!!  Thank you very much for posting that.

If you ever find a schedule of payments or any other such thing noting individual employees, you will have found the holy grail (of dorks like me  ).

[spgordon]

Something will turn up. I think it's a matter of people looking in places that haven't been looked in before.

Can we assume that the manager of the Allentown factory was paid by the state and that he, in turn, would have paid these workers?

This is how Wm Henry's involvement in gun operations during the Revolution seems to have worked. He acted as a middle-man, receiving money from continental treasury and disbursing it to a scattered collection of workers who supplied product (whether we're talking about shoes or about guns). Some of these workers were in small factories (run by people other than Henry), others were working on their own. So we know a lot about who was producing guns "under" Henry because Henry's records about who supplied him with guns survive.  

[Tony Clark]

If you ever find a schedule of payments or any other such thing noting individual employees, you will have found the holy grail (of dorks like me  ).

Thanks SP for posting this the numbers are interesting and names would make it much more so. Eric you aren't a dork, and I wouldn't call you an expurt either. I always thought that was kind of a derogatory term for some reason but thats just me. Being interested in arcane subjects and matters is a true sign of genius. That is my story and I am sticking to it. 

[Eric Kettenburg]

If I was an 'expurt' I'd have figured out a way to get paid for an interest in arcane matters - now THAT'S genius.   

It's not exactly clear who was the manager of the factory; simply reading the language contained within existing documentation seems to indicate Ebenezer Cowell (at least initially) but as the armory/armories (multiple buildings?) took shape, John Tyler apparently played an important role and was in a position of some authority.  Both men repeatedly drew very large sums of money from the Executive Council and there are records of these payments in the archives covering the period that the armory was in operation.  However, I have yet to find individual payments to employees.  There is also note of a petition by the workmen and one might make the *assumption* that it was signed by all parties employed by Cowell and Tyler at the time of its drafting, yet such petition seems to be currently lost.  I do wonder if one of the early 20th century writers who seemed so convinced of some of the employees' names may have had access to either this petition or some other currently-buried paperwork which provided more detail...

[spgordon]

I suppose this petition would be like the "Memorial of Gun Stockers in the State Factory" (October 30, 1777: in PA, 1st ser., 5:733)--which is signed by the 10 stockers.

It's just the good fortune that the Henry family preserved so many papers that we know who supplied guns to WH during the Revolution; these records, that is, didn't survive among the state or continental papers (at least that I know of). So I guess, if the equivalent is true of the Allentown factory, we would need Tyler's or Cowell's papers to have survived somewhere for the records of payments to factory workers to have survived ... or, as you say, a signed petition ....

[Eric Kettenburg]

I investigated both men fairly extensively as best as I was able using the scant information currently cataloged.  There are a number of Cowell's papers archived in Trenton but unfortunately none of them relate to his activities in PA during the period in question.  *sigh*