Earliest written use of the name "Pennsylvania Rifle?"

[Dietle]

Does anyone know of a pre-1840 written example of the term "Pennsylvania Rifle" being used as the name of a type of firearm, rather than being used to identify a rifle regiment, company, or battalion? I've been looking hard, and 1840 is the earliest written example I could find where someone refers to a rifle as a Pennsylvania Rifle. After that, the next written example I could find is 1920! I've heard rumors that there are transcripts of 1770s military procurement-related correspondence in the Pennsylvania Archives book series that refer to Pennsylvania Rifles, but if they really exist, I can't find them.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I have only seen the term rifles used in my research of the time period.  They never specified place of origin.  I would not be surprised to find out that the term did not come about until you had something different to compare it to, for example when halfstocks came out.  Suddenly you have something to differentiate. 

Cory Joe

[Stoner creek]

That’s because they are Kentucky rifles!!!

[JTR]

That’s because they are Kentucky rifles!!!

 

[spgordon]

I've heard rumors that there are transcripts of 1770s military procurement-related correspondence in the Pennsylvania Archives book series that refer to Pennsylvania Rifles, but if they really exist, I can't find them.

I don't think the term is used in any document transcribed in the published Pennsylvania Archives series (which is vast!)--they've been digitized several times and come up in Google books or just Google searches, so that ought to find the term if it is used.

I've looked at thousands of as-yet-unpublished documents related to rifle procurement and rifle repair and just about anything else and don't believe I have ever seen that term used. It would be an odd term to use by somebody in Pennsylvania--and, if so, it would sure suggest that the "type" had become known as something different than other types.

My Dickert article (https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/jacob-dickert/) some years ago noted that in 1788 a merchant in Lexington, Kentucky, advertised that he had “four dickert rifle guns” for sale, which suggests that Dickert's name was known almost as brand. But not "Pennsylvania rifle," as far as I know.

[Dietle]

Thanks everyone!