name on flintlocks lock

[nekshot]

I saw a 54 cal or about long rifle. It looks like a early pa type gun. 42 inch barrel, 7 groove that looks inside to be way to clean for a 200 some year old gun. on the face of the locks plate it says H ELWELL in a oval of scroll work and at bottom of scrolling it says WARRANTED. My question is , Has any one ever heard of that name on the lock plate. On the back of plate is a H and E.
I am sorry I cannot post pics since change in forum.

[Olut]

Henry Elwell was a commercial lockmaker and his locks are not uncommon

[Wayne Smith]

WHEN was Henry Elwell a lockmaker? That makes all the difference.

[redhawk0]

I did find a reference to a Henry Elwell making locks around 1810 in OH/PA in the description of a rifle....if it helps.

redhawk



Description
Presented is a Pennsylvania long rifle with a marvelous tiger stripe maple stock. Although most commonly referred to as a "Kentucky" style rifle, the Pennsylvania long rifle was made in Pennsylvania and Ohio from the early 1700s to as late as 1870s. This specimen is a flintlock target rifle, a true percussion target rifle complete with the heavier octagon barrel and set trigger. A great deal of earlier flintlock rifles, including this relic, had their flintlock mechanisms converted to percussion during the early 1800s by use of the drum conversion technique that drilled into the breach side of barrel. The rifle has been crafted by a skilled rifle maker, highlighting the fine lines of an earlier flintlock with crescent buttplate and slender long wrist. The "tiger stripe" is a pattern applied to plain maple using corded wood heated in fire and burned into a stock to created tiger maple pattern. The lock is marked H. Elwell Warrented. The gun manufacturers, Small Arms Makers lists Henry Elwell as a maker of gun "locks" in Seneca City, Ohio about 1810-12. The rifle itself may have been made by another gun maker, but the lock was produced by Elwell around 1810. The metal of the .50 caliber octagonal barrel shows almost no pitting, measuring 39” with the overall rifle measuring nearly 46 inches.