doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - History of early grip safety

Manton percussion and possibly flintlock guns have surfaced with a grip safety allowing the gun to stay on safety at full cock until the shooter's hand grips the wrist releasing the safety. I have read somewhere that this was not Joe or John Manton's patent but was a safety that they occasionally used. Does anyone know who patented this early grip safety? Thanks.

Here is a scan of some pictures of a Charles Lancaster .500 ML conversion I sold a few years ago with a grip safety. It was a wonderful gun. I had better pics but cannot find them right now.
Steve

Another neat gun and grip safety variant
https://www.shotgunworld.com/thread...wder-s-s-info-value.556724/#post-4832899

Grip safeties occasionally turn up on early pin-fire game guns, and on conversions from percussion. There appear to be several patents involved.

Here is a Harris Holland 12-bore, no. 824:



A Hugh Snowie 14-bore, no. 3277:



A 16-bore conversion to pin-fire from percussion, unsigned:




And here is an unusual variation on the grip-safety idea, on a 16-bore pin-fire signed Robert Marrison of Norwich, no. 2281, with an action by Jean Louis Mathieu Godin of Herstal, Belgium, itself a copy of Beatus Beringer's peculiar underlever action. The safety is a small stud protruding behind the hammers, and the triggers cannot be pulled if the underlever is not correctly in place and the stud is correspondingly depressed: