dug locks in ETN

[Trkdriver99]

These are pictures of a couple of locks that were found near a Rev War era home here in upper East Tennessee. I don't know if this is the right place, if not move to right forum. Is there any one interested in them I can ask the owner if they would allow  more access to them.

Ronnie

[Jim Kibler]

Thanks for the photos.  Any chance you have additional shots of the first lock that may show the engraving a little better?  From what I can see, it looks like pretty nice British import style engraving. 

[G-Man]

What a cool find! 

The front of the early plate looks to be convex(?) or is it flat? It does look very typical for English trade quality.   Depending on some of the features not visible in the photos, could be pre-Rev up through early 1780s.  Perhaps a piece from an native tradegun, or an early rifle brought into the region by settlers.  Gary Brumfield shows some very similar locks on his website.

The second lock is interesting too - something that would be right at home on an East Tennessee rifle from the period 30-50 years or so later than the first lock.

Makes you wonder if the site had a history of native use before the house was built, or a gunsmith operating there at some point, etc.....

Thanks for posting,

Guy

[T*O*F]

These are pictures of a couple of locks that were found near a Rev War era home here in upper East Tennessee

It seems incongruous that two dissimilar locks would be found in such close proximity unless some type of battle took place there and the two dead guys guns weren't recovered afterwards.

Alternatively, why were just the locks found with no other hardware fragments.  Perhaps the owner has omitted other important details of the site.

[yankee]

Check out the soled frizzen.
Mike

[G-Man]

The repaired frizzen was one of the things that made me wonder if there might have been a gunsmith working on the site some time in the 1800s - maybe cannibalizing some old locks for parts.  Hamilton shows some finds like this from Native sites with long periods of habitation.  Since this house was built in the late 1700s, and the second lock looks to date well after 1800, I don't mean to imply its a Native site, just maybe someone repairing old guns and maybe peicing together parts worth saving.

On the other hand, for dug pieces, they are in really good condition.  Perhaps in 1930 someone might have taken out great Grandad's two ancient, and what seemed at the time worthless, outdated flintlocks and scavenged the locks to try to find a mainspring that would work to repair a third gun and maybe put a squirrel or rabbit in the pot for the family that night.  You never know.  People do what they need to survive, and people in the region have a long history or being resourceful, making due with what they have, and keeping up old ways well beyond the timeframes we think of as the period of use of muzzleloaders.

Interesting stuff - as TOF said, would love to know more about the site.

Guy

[Trkdriver99]

www.thomasamis.com/

This a link to the place where the locks were found. The folks that own the farm are very nice people and happy to speak to you and tell you about their place. They are decendants of Capt Amis. I met them when the SAR did a marker service at the site. We are now working on having some type of "reenactment" on their property. As I look at the picture on the relics link I am not sure where it was found or dug. There is an old blacksmith shop and the Captain had a store as this was a jumping off place for the folks going to Kentucky. Look at the page and you can see the beauty of this historic home.

Ronnie

[G-Man]

Thanks Ronnie - the history of the people (and longrifles) of your region are some of my biggest areas of interest so I appreciate you posting the photos and the link.  I have read of Amis before.  Since they had a forge and traded with natives, and and since it was sort of a congregating and "jumping off" place for points north and west, I can imagine quite a few guns being used and repaired around there in its early life.  Places like this that seem off the beaten path now were on the trails that were the equivalent of our interstate highways.  When you stand at Cumberland Gap and try to imagine the 250,000+ people that moved west through there in the late 1700s, it is sort of hard to believe today.

Guy