A P53 (Pattern 1853) Enfield long rifle was recently purchased by a comrade who had questions about its history. It is an interesting piece. It looks like the TOWER and date are engraved further forward on the lockplate than usual. The markings are usually a tad closer to the hammer. The TOWER mark engraved on the lockplate was meant to indicate that the weapon had passed an inspection with gauges at the government facility (called the Tower) on Bagot Street in Birmingham, but this was most often not the case on a military weapon produced for commercial export. The stock behind the trigger guard was marked “Moore and Harris.” What was the firm of Moore and Harris, where we they located and what kinds of guns did they make?
Moore & Harris was a fairly well known Birmingham commercial gun producer. William Moore began his own business in 1808 and did work making gunstocks for the well-known firm of Joseph Manton in London until about 1820. William Moore also had premises in London and in 1829 opened a stock making operation in the gun quarter of Birmingham at 4 Whittall Street. In 1836 he was made “Gunmakerin-Ordinary” to King William IV of England. This meant that his work was in a higher category than his peers and as such he was chosen as a gun maker for the king. He began a partnership with William Harris in 1838 and began exporting firearms to the United States around this time.
In 1847 William Moore and William Parker Grey, who had been a clerk and later a manager for the firm of Joseph Manton, went into partnership in London at 78 Edgeware Road where they operated as Wm Moore & Grey. They predominately produced shotguns for sportsmen. It was not uncommon for commercial gun makers to operate several businesses where they could produce just about any sort of firearm and sell to anyone with whom it was legal to do business.
William Harris was recorded in the 1851 census as a master gun maker employing five men. He was living at 38 Great Hampton Street, Birmingham, with his wife Emma, his mother-in-law, and a servant. On October 1, 1852, William Moore and William Harris patented a hinged percussion revolver that was produced in limited quantities. By 1859 Moore & Harris had expanded into barrel and lock making; in 1861 they moved into a large factory known as the Great Western Gun Works at 91 Constitution Hill in Birmingham.
In 1861 Frederick Beesley was apprenticed at the age of 15 to William Grey at William Moore & Co at 43 Old Bond Street. By the middle of 1867 Frederick was coming to the end of his seven year apprenticeship and on January 16, 1869, aged 22, he married Clarissa Cheese, the daughter of a mushroom farmer, at Christ’s Church, Marylebone. On Monday August 30, 1869, Frederick started work as a stocker for James Purdey the Younger at 314 ½ Oxford Street. Beesley
later opened his own firm producing shotguns and fowling pieces.
The 1861 census record shows William Harris and his wife living at 36 Loveday Street in Birmingham at this time. William Harris is also described in the records as a gun maker. In 1862 the partnership of William Moore and William Harris had a display with both military and civilian sporting guns at the International Exhibition in London. After that, there was a downturn in business in 1864. Perhaps some U.S. Civil War contracts ending could have led to temporary financial problems or it is possible longtime partner William Moore died, no date of death is firmly established; at any rate in 1864 the premises at 91 Constitution Hill (Great Western Gun Works) was sold at auction. Westley Richards joined Moore & Harris in a partnership established to save the firm from closure. The venture failed but because Moore & Harris still had a fairly substantial sporting gun trade and connections in the export business, the operation was bought at auction by W & C Scott & Son.
The firm of Moore & Harris appears to have moved back to London and re-opened retail operations, at least they are known to have been trading in 1867 from a showroom at 2 Long Acre, London. When that operation closed is not known, but it may have lasted up to 1877. William Harris was recorded in the 1871 census as living with wife Emma at 126 Buckingham Palace Road, London, clearly having permanently left the gun quarter of Birmingham. He described himself as the manager of a gun factory. They are not recorded afterwards.
Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina The (Charlotte). Craig served Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy The Unfinished (2006, 2011), Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013) and three books (soon to be four) in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.