Hi Rob,
There were two Jesse Lamb's who worked as gunsmiths in Jamestown, N.C. However, neither of them moved to Georgia in the 1840's.
Jesse G. Lamb was the youngest son of William Lamb. William was the most widely respected of the 85 gunsmiths known to have worked in this school in the Nineteenth Century. Jesse G. Lamb was born in 1831. His father made his older brother Henry Clarkson Lamb, a full partner in his gun business in 1855, and they started signing their rifles W. Lamb & Son. In 1857, Jesse G. Lamb was made a full partner, and the barrel stamp was changed to W. Lamb & Sons. During the Civil War H.C. Lamb secured three contracts to make military rifles for the State of North Carolina under the name of H.C. Lamb & Co. Over 700 were produced under these contracts.
I believe the Lamb water powered barrel mill and gun shop were burned as part of the raid of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry raid on Florence and Jamestown on April 11, 1865.
Anderson Lamb also had a son named Jesse Lamb. (Anderson Lamb owned the most prolific of the Jamestown gun shops, and many of his rifles survive locally. Prior authors have listed William and Anderson Lamb as brothers. This is not correct. They were brother-in-laws. William was married to Frances Lamb, Anderson's older sister. William trained Anderson as a gun smith and they must have worked as partners for a few years as there are a few rifles and one pistol that survive signed A. & W. Lamb.) Jesse Lamb was born in 1846. In the 1870's he was made a full partner in Anderson Lamb's gun shop and their barrel stamp was changed to A. Lamb & Co. I believe the company stayed open until Anderson Lamb's death in 1891.
Anderson Lamb also had a daughter named Eleanor Lamb. She was born in 1843. She would marry Solomon H. Ward just after the end of the Civil War. He trained under his father-in-law and would open his own very successful gun shop. His was the last Jamestown gun shop to close in 1902. He died in 1905, and is buried beside Eleanor at Hickory Grove Methodist Church cemetery.
Thanks for posting this photo. The rifle does look like a Jamestown.
Michael
