Author Topic: rifles by Thomas Miles, Gunlock Factory  (Read 936 times)

Offline WESTbury

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rifles by Thomas Miles, Gunlock Factory
« on: December 13, 2021, 07:42:53 PM »
I found quite a few interesting documents on the website for the Pennsylvania State Archives. One relates to rifles being made by Thomas Miles and another individual, first name of Thomas last name I'm not quite sure of, perhaps Corger. The other references a "gunlock factory".

Scott, Eric or others probably may have posted these before. Sorry for the redundancy if that is the case.









https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/psa/islandora/object/psa%3A1857552?overlay_query=RELS_EXT_isMemberOfCollection_uri_ms%3A%22info%3Afedora/psa%3Aacc1776%22



« Last Edit: December 13, 2021, 08:37:12 PM by WESTbury »
"We are not about to send American Boys 9 to 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian Boys ought to be doing for themselves."
President Lyndon B. Johnson October 21, 1964

Offline spgordon

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Re: rifles by Thomas Miles, Gunlock Factory
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2021, 09:15:20 PM »
Dehaven's factory (mentioned in one of those documents) has been well researched, especially in an article some years ago by Wayne Heckert: “Rifles and Muskets on the Swatara: Clandestine Hummelstown Factory Armed the Revolution,” KRA Bulletin 34, 1 (2007): 3-6.  There is tons more information in the PA State Archives about that factory that Wayne didn't use, though. I totaled up all the receipts of payments to Dehaven once and came up with the numbers that I used in the text below:

Dehaven's factory was originally established at French Creek & was removed to Hummelstown in 1777. It began its life as a lock-making factory but soon became an all around repair factory, which Dehaven supervised. By early 1777 he had “Nin[e]teen Men at Work in the Gun Way,” which, he hoped, would enable him “in a Short Time to Repair A Great Maney arms & Make Some New ones.”  The state provided substantial funds to keep the facility operating. Surviving receipts from July 1776 to February 1778 document payments of £21,950.0.0 to Dehaven and Carter (and £700 more to build barracks and recruit a company to guard the works). This factory was disbanded in January 1779 and its contents sold to Rittenhouse, Dehaven, etc.

Miles and Corger aren't related to the gunlock factory. They're being paid to make rifles (or supply them), like hundreds of other gunsmiths (or larger contractors) across the state in 1776. There is a desperate attempt to supply arms after the quota system (requiring each county to make a certain number of arms) fails miserably. This is when/why Pennsylvania licenses officials to disarm non-associators. The issue is less that they're worried that the non-associators will bear arms against the patriots than that they need every arm available and non-associators' arms are going unused altogether.

Not sure where Miles & his partner were located but the American Archives series records some payments to Miles for rifles delivered to a couple of captains--so figure out where the captains were & you'll know where Miles and his partner was:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Archives/SjlDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Thomas+Miles%22+%2B+1776+%2B+rifles&pg=PA1329&printsec=frontcover
« Last Edit: December 13, 2021, 09:27:04 PM by spgordon »
Check out: The Lost Village of Christian's Spring
https://christiansbrunn.web.lehigh.edu/
And: The Earliest Moravian Work in the Mid-Atlantic: A Guide
https://www.moravianhistory.org/product-page/moravian-activity-in-the-mid-atlantic-guidebook

Offline WESTbury

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Re: rifles by Thomas Miles, Gunlock Factory
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2021, 09:53:32 PM »
Scott,

I knew I could count on you for some in-depth info!!! Thanks.

Also, I need the name of a good eye doctor after staring at all of the documents in RG27.

Kent
"We are not about to send American Boys 9 to 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian Boys ought to be doing for themselves."
President Lyndon B. Johnson October 21, 1964

Offline spgordon

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Re: rifles by Thomas Miles, Gunlock Factory
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2021, 10:06:31 PM »
Also, I need the name of a good eye doctor after staring at all of the documents in RG27.

I feel your pain, my friend! There are 47 reels in that @!*% RG27 and I spent one summer going through about half of them.

As painful as that was, though, I do wish that additional record groups were available online. (I use them through Family Search, not the PA state archives website.)
Check out: The Lost Village of Christian's Spring
https://christiansbrunn.web.lehigh.edu/
And: The Earliest Moravian Work in the Mid-Atlantic: A Guide
https://www.moravianhistory.org/product-page/moravian-activity-in-the-mid-atlantic-guidebook