doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Frederick Beesley

I am looking for information on Frederick Beesley and have not been finding much. More specifically I am looking for info on his years as a gun maker under his name. Can anyone point me in the right direction? There has to be some literature out there somewhere. I have read that his shop records were destroyed during the blitz in 1940 after his business was sold. It appears he made few guns, 1,800 or so. I have a Beesley side lock from around 1898. The action is not the Beesley self opener. It is a different Beesley design. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Fixed it for ‘ya. Nice looking gun.










Best,
Ted

Besides designing the famous Purdy "Best" gun, he also designed the sidelock Lancaster "Wristbreaker". Prolific inventor indeed.

There are a couple of pages on him in Nigel Brown Vol.1- London “British Gunmakers”.

Frederick Beesley was nicknamed “Inventor to the Gun Trade” and his various patents will be found in Crudrington and Baker, Volumes 2 and 3.

He seems to have made guns for others as well as in his own name.

Beesley Patent Lancaster boxlocks were I believe made (and perhaps finished) by him, and would be given a Lancaster serial number pre-fixed by the letter O to show not of their own make.

There is a lot more information in “Atkin, Grant and Lang” the second book written by my my lamented Shooting friend Don Masters.

See pages 177 to 190, and a list of serial numbers/years towards the end of the book.

Don and I both used to shoot at Bearhurst, near Ockley, in Surrey. The estate is crossed by a Roman Road , Stane Street, and the Roman concrete bridge foundations still survive where the Legions crossed a stream.

He was a fine Gunsmith, and traded as Churchill’s (his other book was The House of Churchill) and an excellent historian. We lost him far too soon, but it is a blessing that he committed so much of his knowledge of the history of the London Gun Trade to print.

That is a heck of a beautiful gun. Congratulations!

Crescent Fire Arms Company, Norwich, Conn., manufactured the “Triumph Hammerless Pat. June 16, 1885” from 1895-1898.
The gun was based on patents issued to Frederick Beesley and controlled by Charles Lancaster. They were made on order for Sears Roebuck & Co. and probably less than 750 were manufactured. It is a self opening action.

https://archive.org/details/consumersguideno00sear/page/354/mode/2up?view=theater