NC Mountain rifle signed (M.G) for Matthew Gillespie circa
1810. Matthew was born 7.23.1788
in the Old Pendleton District near Easley SC. His father, John Gillespie, moved the family to the East
fork area of present day Transylvania County NC circa 1799. There he built a powdered “gun
mill”. Matthew and his brothers
William G. and Robert Harvey G. were taught to build the well-known NC
Gillespie rifles. Matthew lived in
East Fork until his marriage to the daughter of iron works owner Phillip
Sitton. Matthew probably met
Elizabeth on an iron buying trip for his father,
The rifle was built as flint, converted to percussion and
later it was converted back to flint.
The lock plate appears to be the original but the pan/frizzen/frizzen
spring/cock are modern replacements used in the re-conversion.
Notice the short (1 inch) grooved nose cap, these are
consistent with other known Matthew Gillespie rifles. Note how far forward the front cross pin is located. The 45 1/4” barrel shows no evidence of
ever being cut. In fact there is
another almost identical unsigned Gillespie that has this same feature. Possibly they were done like this to
keep weeds/branches from easily wedging between the barrel and forearm??
The barrel is hand forged with a slight swamp. The barrel is 45.25 inches long with 7
grooves and is 41 caliber, it measures 1.035 inches at the breech and tapers to
.945 at five inches from the muzzle which measures .995 inches. Note the unusual 45.25 inch barrel, the
twin rifle, mentioned earlier, also has a 45.25 inch barrel, both appear to be
un-cut. Possibly this was the
maximum length their equipment would handle??
The hardware is also hand forged iron. There are 2 plain iron thimbles and no
entry pipe. Two wood screws hold
the 3 7/8 inch spear shaped tang.
The rifle has a LOP of 14.5 inch, the drop at heel is 3.25 inches which
is straighter than later Gillespie rifles but the exact same as the twin rifle
mentioned earlier. The rifle has
no butt plate. The grease box is
rectangular shaped like other early Gillespie’s, remnant of the bear grease and
beeswax patch lube is still present inn the box. The stock is American Black Walnut and has a cheek rest with
a single incised line.
The trigger is typical early Gillespie style that has the rear
trigger plate filed to a point.
The trigger/plate is held in the mortise using a notch under the front
trigger bow and by the end of the screws that holds the trigger main spring. The main spring screw presses against
the underside of the finger rail of the trigger guard and holds it tightly in
the mortise. The trigger guard is
held by two small wood screws.
Information about the Gillispe family of gunmakers can be found on the American LongRifle Forums here.
