This study is a major reference work dealing in a thorough and complete fashion with every known gunsmith, inventor and manufacturer of firearms in Massachusetts from the earliest colonial smith to the industrial entities that flourished in Massachusetts and New England by the 1900s. Original sources including but not limited to, town, county and local histories, Commonwealth and National Archives, directories, memoirs, U.S.Patent office materials and military procurement memoranda have been utilized to create a complete biographical record. Ancillary areas such as locksmiths, powder makers and forge masters are also discussed. A complete bibliography and index are also included. Dr. Whisker is the author of Arms Makers of Colonial America and several other specialist studies.

Collection of names with some biographical information of tradesmen who made firearms and other weapons, and repaired the same, in Massachusetts from the earliest times, c. 1610, until 1900. Photographs of some representative firearms.

How manufacturing textiles and guns transformed the United States from colonial dependent to military power. In 1783, the Revolutionary War drew to a close, but America was still threatened by enemies at home and abroad. The emerging nation faced tax rebellions, Indian warfare, and hostilities with France and England. Its arsenal—a collection of hand-me-down and beat-up firearms—was woefully inadequate, and its manufacturing sector was weak. In an era when armies literally froze in the field, military preparedness depended on blankets and jackets, the importation of which the British Empire had coordinated for over 200 years. Without a ready supply of guns, the new nation could not defend itself; without its own textiles, it was at the economic mercy of the British. Domestic industry offered the best solution for true economic and military independence. In Manufacturing Advantage, Lindsay Schakenbach Regele shows how the US government promoted the industrial development of textiles and weapons to defend the country from hostile armies—and hostile imports. Moving from the late 1700s through the Mexican-American War, Schakenbach Regele argues that both industries developed as a result of what she calls “national security capitalism”: a mixed enterprise system in which government agents and private producers brokered solutions to the problems of war and international economic disparities. War and State Department officials played particularly key roles in the emergence of American industry, facilitating arms makers and power loom weavers in the quest to develop industrial resources. And this defensive strategy, Schakenbach Regele reveals, eventually evolved to promote westward expansion, as well as America’s growing commercial and territorial empire. Examining these issues through the lens of geopolitics, Manufacturing Advantage places the rise of industry in the United States in the context of territorial expansion, diplomacy, and warfare. Ultimately, the book reveals the complex link between government intervention and private initiative in a country struggling to create a political economy that balanced military competence with commercial needs.

This reference work discusses the origins and development of arms makers of Connecticut from earliest times until the industrialization of the industry in the late 19th and early 20th century. The arms makers and their arms are linked to changes that occurred with rapidity as Connecticut became a major centre for weaponry from the Civil War to contemporary times. The focus of the research are the earlier and smaller makers rather than the large industrial companies (like Colt) that flourished during the middle of the 19th century. Guns made in pre-Revolutionary war Connecticut generally fall into one of three categories: fowling pieces, the old name for single barrel shotguns; rifles, which are distinguished by heavier octagonal barrels with spiral rifling hand-cut inside; and single-shot handguns or pistols. Rifles were attractive when there was larger game, such as deer, moose, elk or bear, to be hunted. Fowling pieces served as arms for taking water fowl and small game. Handguns, used mostly to back up long arms, were minimally useful for sporting or hunting and are seen far less often than are shoulder arms. There are probably more New England fowlers known than any other type of American made single barrel shotgun. New England guns vary in design because they were produced by a great number of gun makers over a longer time period within a larger geographical area. There were fowling pieces made late in the eighteenth century with post-Revolutionary War era British Brown Bess flintlocks as well as an occasional very late club butt fowler originally manufactured with a percussion lock. Connecticut arms had a surprisingly global distribution as early as the late 17th and early 18th century. They were found on pirate ships in the Caribbean, in compounds of African chiefs, on slavers boats, and among Mohawk and Algonquin raiding parties deep in the frontier; they also were used by pioneer farmers and their families for hunting, defence and sport. Connecticut s abundant iron deposits, waterways and forests as well as the colony s practical mindedness all contributed to launching an early and successful small town and village industry. Connecticut artisans, Professor Whisker and Spiker point out, were canny and agile in incorporating features from French, French Canadian and Dutch gunsmiths and in time developed their own special design features both in shotgun, rifle, handgun and musket manufacturing.

Arms Makers of Colonial America by James B. Whisker is a comprehensively documented historical survey of the broad spectrum of arms makers in America who were active before 1783. Complemented by a lengthy introduction and nearly 200 illustrations, this extensive listing was derived from original source materials, including the archives and public and state papers of the thirteen original colonies, tax records, Revolutionary War pensions, deeds, wills and estates, and the American Archives. With a full citation of the source, each biographical entry presents the type of arms production the individual was engaged in, the time period, and the location. The professions represented are many and varied: gunsmiths and gunstockers, armorers, gun barrel makers, iron and steel manufacturers, brass founders, pike and other edged weapon makers and cutlers, accoutrements makers, gunpowder makers, and gunlock makers and locksmiths. In each of the earliest settlements in America there was a gunsmith who mended the arms of his neighbors and sharpened their knives and taught them how to use these tools on which they depended for food and protection. John Dandy of Maryland, ca. 1635, is the first person who can be identified as a gunsmith who made guns - lock, stock, and barrel. Most of the earliest gunsmiths were armorers, that is, they repaired, cleaned, and maintained arms on government contract. In early New England each militiaman provided his own gun or the colonial administration provided one for him and charged him for it. The maintenance of the gun was the responsibility of the government, and thus it has been possible to identify many of the early armorers and gunsmiths through colonial records of their services. Militia service was neglected, however, during the early to mid eighteenth century, and when war came, public arms were generally in a deplorable state. During the French and Indian War many gunsmiths were impressed into service as armorers to restore the neglected arms. This exercise proved to be a grand rehearsal for arms production taken on during the Revolution. An English observer wrote that the Americans would have little difficulty arming themselves if war came between the mother country and her colonies because there were more than sufficient gunmakers and allied tradesmen to provide 100,000 guns a year. Pennsylvania was the center of the arms making trade. The home rifle, commonly called the Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, an American modification of the German hunting rifle, had been developed in or near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. It was deadly accurate and gave the skilled marksmen of the backwoods a superior sniper weapon. The craftsmen of Lancaster, Philadelphia, and other cities stopped making their civilian arms and concentrated on making militia muskets in the early years of the war for independence. By 1780, except on the frontier, the supply of imported and domestic militia arms exceeded demand, and the tradesmen returned to rifle making. The golden age of classic long rifle making followed.