Argo44, the information is indeed extracted from the IGC Database. I have been trying to find corroborating information (it may be from census data). You could contact them for the original source material.
Reuben Hambling obviously moved around a lot, and the family was not without mention in the press. In the 2 June 1859 edition of the Brighton Gazette, recounts that Mr Moses Griffith, a journeyman gunmaker working for Reuben Hambling of 112 North St, poisoned himself by drinking barrel browning solution. The Canterbury Journal and Farmer's Gazette of 11 June 1892 refers to Hambling's bankrupcy, due to "slackness of trade both at Canterbury and Ashford" and expenses due to illness (Burgate St, Canterbury and 39 New St, Ashford), leaving debts of £135/2/11. As an insight into the times, the Ashford business was started around 1888 with £60, of which £40 was his savings and a £20 loan from his son. The Canterbury shop was started in late 1891 with a capital of £140 borrowed from his wife. The Birminghan Daily Post of 7 July 1894 recounts Reuben Hambling's widow, Sarah, being accused of stealing £200 from a hearse (!)... in a nefarious scheme with her brother.
It is easy to see these guns as simply objects. It is more interesting to think of them as artifacts of the period, made by people with often colourful lives...
I'm glad you're finding the thread of interest. The pinfire game gun has sat in the shadows for too long, and it is a much larger part of sporting gun history than merely a technological dead-end.
I do have a Reilly pinfire to post, but I need to take some better photos of it.
Last edited by Steve Nash; 02/03/21 04:49 PM.
