Description

Sharps Lawsuit – 1857

Christian Sharps, originator of the Sharps Rifle Company, was born in New Jersey around 1822. Little is known of his early life but he is known to have apprenticed as a machinist in the vicinity of Mill Creek Pennsylvania, about six miles west of Philadelphia.

Here, in 1845 he made his first rifle at the Daniel Nippes rifle factory of Mill Creek, and also met his future wife, Sarah Chadwick, who lived next door to the factory.

The contract Daniel Nippes had taken on to manufacture the Model 1840 flint-lock musket almost ruined him and in an effort to save the company, he altered some of his muskets, to percussion and Maynard Primer. In 1849 or 1850 Sharps transferred the manufacture of his rifle to the Massachusetts Arms Company of Chicopee Falls , Massachusetts . Robbins and Lawrence, of Windsor , Vermont , suggested some improvements, and a stock company was formed in Hartford , Connecticut in 1851 to manufacture the new model.

Robbins and Lawrence erected a factory in Hartford in 1852, as they made the first rifles in Windsor . About 1855 Robbins and Lawrence went bankrupt, and Lawrence became superintendent of the Sharps Company. Robbins and Lawrence had pledged the Sharps Company property as security for a contract with the British Government for the manufacture of Enfield rifles, and this became the basis of the lawsuit which finally exhausted the patience of the stockholders and caused the dissolution of the company in 1874. This is that lawsuit.

67 pages, about 8" x 5 1/2", glossy soft-cover in full color. New re-print restored and digitally enhanced.

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