doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Crofts Patent action, very early top lever

Does anyone have any information on existing Crofts Patent actions?

Here is a 12-bore bar-in-wood pinfire gun by Reuben? Hambling of Salford, Manchester. The top rib is marked �27 New Bailey St. Salford Manchester�, and the locks are marked �Hambling�. While the Hambling gunmakers are known from Blackawton, Devon (William Bartlett Hambling, William Baker Hambling, James Hambling, John Hambling, John Hambling, Charles George Hambling, Hiram Bartlett Hambling, Henry Hambling and Reuben Hambling), from genealogical information Reuben Hambling was living in Manchester around the time of this gun, circa 1866-1868, so I presume he made this gun there.

The action is a John Crofts patent rotating cam bolt single bite snap action (patent 1033 of 11 April 1866), and the action bar is stamped �Crofts Patent�. The right side of the lever is straight, while the left side is slightly curved. If you have Volume One of Crudgington and Baker, the action is described on pages 149-150, though not from an actual gun.

Has anyone encountered this action on other guns, either pinfires or early centre-fires?

Nigel Brown also lists a Reuben Hambling at 112, North Street, Brighton, Sussex in 1858. Looks like he may have moved. There are other Hamblings listed in Norfolk and Devon.

Manchester had quite a thriving gun making history. Nice and interesting example. Lagopus.....

Thank you. The Manchester gunmakers are pretty well documented, which is why this gun is peculiar. The full addresss on the rib seems to discount the idea of an �ironmongers� gun�, or a spuriously named gun (of all the choices for that, why would someone chose the name Hambling?). As you point out, no Hamblings are recorded as gunmakers in Manchester in any of the well researched reference books. And if you�re putting together a Birmingham trade gun for local sale, why use an obscure patent action, when a Jones under-lever will do? And make it as a bar-in-wood gun, no less? The gun has no serial number.

The Hambling gunmaking clan did spread out, but mostly in the south of Britain. Despite the number of them, I have never encountered any other Hambling guns, so I don�t know how they might be marked. It is only through genealogies and incidental business records that it is possible to place Reuben Hambling in Bexley St., Salford in 1865-1869? (as well as Brighton (1859), St. Botolph without Aldergate (1861), Birmingham (1865), London (1881-1885), Ashford (1891), and Canterbury (1892, where he died), as well as his early years (1833-1851+) in Blackawton). One known Hambling gunmaking business address in Salford is Bexley Street (due to a gunpowder accident reported in the newspaper). While the gun�s rib inscription is now faint, it can only be read as �New Bailey St.�, a valid Salford address, which furthers the mystery!

The gun has seen hard use, the action spring is now weak, and the rib is somewhat detached at the breech end. It would have been quite a handsome gun in its prime, a standout from the typical pinfire designs of the day.

Here's a synopsis of the Croft patent. The sketch looks remarkedly similar to Mr. Nash's gun.

Thanks, Daryl, that�s a very useful diagram, and it�s precisely the action on the gun.