Gunmakers of Birmingham 1750-1900

[Sue in Yorkshire]

Hi,
I am trying to find if the list of Birmingham Gunmakers shows anyone with surname Martin or White. All the Martin's and White's that I have found seem to make some part of a gun. I wondered if they worked as a family. They are mainly around Weaman St, Loveday St, New John St and  Aston.
Best wishes,
Sue

[jim1]

Hi Sue
B'ham was home to a large and thriving gun manufacturing industry in what is known as the "gun quarter".There were many people working in it including several generations of the same family.They probably worked for the same company.
Info here:http://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/history/bull.htm
Regards JIm

[Sue in Yorkshire]

Hi JIm
Thanks for the info about the gun quarter I love to read anything about it as I think Birmingham is so unique with the gun and jewelry quarters.There do not seem to be any other cities that were quite the same.
With regards to the gunmakers list.  I have heard before of this alphabetical list of gunmakers in a book by Bailey and Nie and wondered if anyone had any knowledge of it or access to it so that I could check to see if any Martin or White was on it.
I was most interested in finding out about the Martin family as there were so many of them, especially around the 1800-1850's and they all seemed to make some part of a gun. I did wonder if some guns would have been completely made by the Martin family.
From some of the older records it looks as if they started as soldier armorers and carried on the work when they left the army.
Any advice where I might find this list would be much appreciated.
Regards,
 Sue

[jim1]

Hello Sue
Searched here for your family but there doesn't appear to be any Martin's involved in the gun trade listed:
http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp
As for the book you mentioned the only place I can think of is Birmingham Central Library(6th.floor)
where all commercial publications are kept.You can email them and ask if they have it.
Regards Jim

[jim1]

Here it is and they will do a lookup for you
http://www.researchpress.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl
Jim

[Sue in Yorkshire]

Thank you very much Jim I will contact them.
Best wishes,
Sue

[Kathleen from Kent]

Hi Sue

Did you ever manage to get a reply for the web site?  I have a great, great, great grandfather who was a gun maker in Birmingham area, name of Joseph Seaich, and I'm stuck!!!

Wondered if you had any advice to pass on please.

Kind regards
Kathleen

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[mrsruz]

Central Library definitely have the Bailey & Nye book in their reference section.
I found my 3xg grandfather & his brother in it. They were both business owners, employing other people.
Donīt think you will have much luck with ancestors who were employees or self employed.
For many years guns were made in individual parts in small workshops all over the city & then assembled into the finished article. Men were employed as gun stockers, gun action filers, gun barrel makers etc.

[Tarella]

Has anyone written a history of Pryse and Redman or is anyone intending to?