• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Been reading about Harman Barnes

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 8, 2017
Messages
434
Reaction score
161
Location
Central Missouri
This guy was way above his peers as a gunsmith and I can't really find a lot of info. Would anybody happen to have more info?
1565735274559.jpg
 
Harman Barnes was a very fine maker.
There is quite a lot of information about him in Neil and Back's books, Great British Gunmakers, 1540-1740.

Basics are in Gunmakers of London, 1350 -1850 By Howard Blackmore.

I can copy out Blackmore's info if you wish.

All the best,
Richard.
 
Hi,
Barne was of course born in Holland and immigrated to England before the English civil war. The repeater shown was probably not invented by Barne rather he copied the Kalthoff system from Germany. In fact, Hayward stated that the oldest surviving flintlock mechanism made in Germany is on a Kalthoff repeater. None of these breech loaders or repeaters was very successful because over time wear on the internal parts and magazines made them dangerous and powder fouling would jam them. Harman Barne (Armand Barnevelt) was known for his turn-off pistols. It is possible that Prince Rupert used a rifled pair in his famous shooting demonstration before King Charles I, when he shot and hit a church steeple weather vane. He shot it first with one pistol and when Charles suggested it was a lucky shot, he repeated the performance with the second pistol.

dave
 
Blogman,

Though Dave above gave some info, here is what Blackmore has to say;

Barnes, Dutch Gunmaker, Perhaps Haermen Barnavelt of La Hague.
Probably came to England with Prince Rupert, 1642.
Gunsmith to Royalist forces at Oxford, Raglan Castle, and Bristol.
Imprisoned after Civil War, set free and allowed to work under bond in London area1650.
Shop in The Strand from 1647;May also have worked in Vauxhall with Casper Kalthoff.
Granted naturalisation 1656.
Free of Gunmakers Company, by redemption, 1657.
Arrested by Council of State and stock of firearms confiscated , 1659.
Appointed Handgun Maker to Charles 11, 1660.
Elected Assistant of Gunmakers Company and began supplying arms to Ordnance , 1661.
Died 1661.
Will probated 1661.
Business continued by widow, Ursula.

Best,
Richard.
 
Blogman,

Though Dave above gave some info, here is what Blackmore has to say;

Barnes, Dutch Gunmaker, Perhaps Haermen Barnavelt of La Hague.
Probably came to England with Prince Rupert, 1642.
Gunsmith to Royalist forces at Oxford, Raglan Castle, and Bristol.
Imprisoned after Civil War, set free and allowed to work under bond in London area1650.
Shop in The Strand from 1647;May also have worked in Vauxhall with Casper Kalthoff.
Granted naturalisation 1656.
Free of Gunmakers Company, by redemption, 1657.
Arrested by Council of State and stock of firearms confiscated , 1659.
Appointed Handgun Maker to Charles 11, 1660.
Elected Assistant of Gunmakers Company and began supplying arms to Ordnance , 1661.
Died 1661.
Will probated 1661.
Business continued by widow, Ursula.

Best,
Richard.
Has anyone run across Henry (Hendrick) Nimes, gunsmith of Clement Danes - supposedly also an import from Holland with Prince Rupert ca 1642?
 
This maker (or rather smith) isy wife's 9 x great-grandfather. His son Godfrey emigrated to Massachusetts in the 1660s to become the progenitor of all Nims in America today.

I'm in Ontario.
 
Back
Top