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LOT 176
Historic 1743 Dated British Brown Bess Flintlock Musket with “BH” Carved Stock Identified as Owned by Revolutionary War Soldier Beriah Holcomb - NSN, 75 cal., 45 inch round bbl., bright finish, walnut stock. This historic British Long Land Pattern Brown Bess musket dates to prior to the French & Indian War and is identified as having been owned by Revolutionary War soldier Beriah Holcomb (1746-1824) and then passed down through his family for generations. The smoothbore barrel has a block front sight that doubles as the lug for the included socket bayonet and has the following markings on the breech section: “I”, Ordnance/King’s proofs, “84”, “*/1”, and “IF”. The rounded and curved lock plate has double line borders, the Georgian cipher at the center, a “crown/broad arrow” mark below the priming pan, and “FARMER/1743” signed on the tail section. The furniture is
brass. Additional stamps are found behind the trigger guard tang, and the stock is carved with “SH” and an inverted conjoined “MV” marking on the right side of the butt and a light “NY” and deeper “B H” on the left side.
A copy of “The History of a Gun” by Henry G. Throop indicated that this musket had been passed down to relatives on his mother’s side, Rachel and Mildred Holcomb of Stephentown, by 1895 and had belonged to Throop and Mildred’s shared great great grandfather Beriah Holcomb. Around 1951, he reached back out to Mildred Holcomb to inquire about the musket and learned she had sold it and soon tracked down the buyer, gun collector Elmer Conklin of Stephentown, and bought the musket and indicates the musket had remained in the family
aside from the brief period between when Mildred Holcomb had sold it and he purchased it. The included copy of a 1975 letter to Ronald N. Throop from C.R. Suydam states: “You are extremely lucky to have a fine Brown Bess by Farmer: in that condition, it will be one of the most valuable of the pre-Revolutionary military arms in US history.” Additional information indicates that the gun was passed down through the Throop family until the present and that Beriah Holcomb