The Jeffries family connection
Gavin Gardiner looks at a gun from the dawn of the Industrial Revolution
The period of the early breach loading sporting gun, is one of the most fascinating in all of the history of gunmaking. Gavin Gardiner looks at a gun from the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.
The period of the early breach-loading sporting gun is one of the most fascinating in all of the history of gunmaking. It epitomised the Industrial Revolution that was happening all over Great Britain in every industry, as well as the manufacture of sporting guns.
For the gunmakers it was a period of intensive development and fertile design, with a huge number of patents being registered during the period 1855 to 1875. The sporting gun transitioned from the muzzleloading percussion gun to the hammerless breach-loader that we recognise, almost unchanged, today.
George Jeffries, gunmaker of Norwich, was one such who registered a patent and is largely remembered for one thing, his unique, ‘sidemotion’ side-opening shotgun.
The breach-loading shotgun was in its infancy, having been invented on the continent as early as 1836 and brought to England in 1851 by Casimir Lefaucheux. His stand at the Great Exhibition was viewed by many gunmakers with great curiosity and this, ultimately, led to the acceptance of this principle in sporting shotguns. The advantages of the self-contained pinfire cartridge was clear for all to see, but it would be another 10 years before the breach loader was truly perfected and supplanted the muzzle loader with British gunmakers. However, all of the breachloaders made in
Britain at this time were ultimately of foreign design.
The system of having the barrels hinge down at the breach for loading was the fundamental principle of Lefaucheux’s design that has endured to this day. Westley Richards was the first to improve on its weakness in 1858 and the classic Henry Jones rotary underlever appeared in 1859.
Almost every gunmaker in the land sought to improve these designs and patent applications flooded in as each
sought to out think the other and protect their own improvements. The fundamental principles remained, however. A small number of gunmakers approached the problem from another direction and sought to produce a strong and lightweight design by having the barrels swing to the side on a vertical pivot. The Rigby & Norman patent of 1860 was the first, but it was the designs of George Jeffries of Norwich, that really come to epitomise this style of gun.
George Jeffries first comes to our attention for a design of cartridge reloading and rolled turnover tool. Patented in 1860 it was one of the first all-in-one tools for reloading pinfire cartridges and was widely sold. It was the designs for the ‘side motion’ gun, patent 3300 of 1862 that really achieved his lasting fame and these guns are much sought after by collectors today. The striking design pivots the barrels from a pivot point 8in ahead of the breach face, and slightly to the left, with the barrels swinging open to the right. The whole being operated by rotating under lever that draws the barrels to the right and away from the breach face to open the gun for loading. Upon closing, the barrels are locked tightly closed by a flat wedge under the breach that is integral with the barrels themselves.
This provides a very secure and strong method of jointing the barrels to the action, while keeping weight to the minimum, which is a key feature for a successful double-barrel gun.
The design is striking in its simplicity and elegant as well. One of the most attractive of its period in fact and it was widely advertised thus:
‘JEFFRIES NEW CENTRE FIRE SIDE MOTION BREECH LOADER in now complete. Five times the resisting surface if any double grip drop down guns. Two hard pieces of tempered steel working together in the vital parts never before attained. Quick as any snap gun. The only breech loader invented in Great Britain. It can be made to use either pin or central fire cartridges combined. See Field August 15th 1868. To be had through all first class makers; or of
Jeffries and Sons, Norwich and Potters Lane, Aston New Town, Birmingham. Also Jeffries New Patent central fire cartridge machine no ready to be had of all gunmakers.’
The Jeffries Side Motion gun was in production for around 10 years, and was thought, by contemporary reports, for speed, to be not much inferior to the drop down snap action guns based on the Lefeacheux design. In 1870 one was exhibited at the Workmen’s
International Exhibition at Agricultural Hall, Islington, where it won the Gold Medal for ‘Excellency of workmanship and construction’. Though it was commercial success, it is likely that only a few hundred were built. It was a complex gun to build, and development of the breech-loading gun was happening at a frightening pace. By 1870 the hammer gun had essentially been perfected with the drop down barrel becoming the standard design which continues to this day. Within another 10 years the hammerless breech loader had reached its peak of development, when Frederick Beasley patented his selfopening sidelock action, that Purdey has been building for over 140 years now.
It was a significant enough design of the period to feature in WW Greener’s seminal work The Gun. The classic 9th edition, published in 1910, describing it thus: ‘Of the side motion breech mechanisms the best known is that invented by Mr Jeffries of Norwich in about 1862. The barrels are turned on a vertical pivot by a lever pivoted vertically under the breech-action body, and having a projection fixed eccentrically upon the turning of the lever, which projection engages with a slot in the barrels and moves them. This plan of breech-loading is probably the next best to the “drop down” of Lefeaucheux principle for sporting guns, but it’s inventor, after making it for many years, finally abandoned it. Gunmakers and sportsmen seem agreed that the drop down principle has greater advantages and is the most convenient for all sporting purposes.’
The Jeffries Side Motion gun has always been popular with collectors, and is very much sought after today. Examples are rarely seen but when they are, they attract a good deal of attention. The action, unconventional to modern eyes, has great strength, evidenced by the example illustrated here. This is an example that recently passed through my hands and remains in excellent condition. It was recently submitted to nitro reproof in Birmingham and passed without issue. Handling qualities are superb and it is one of the classic hammer gun designs. When the gun appeared at auction it
was sold for over £13,000.
By the time that the gun was in regular production, George Jeffries son, George ‘Lincoln’ Jeffries had established himself in the Birmingham gun trade. Born in 1847, Lincoln had worked with his brother from an early age in his father’s Norwich business. At the age of 19 he came to Birmingham and was rapidly established as a successful gunmaker in his own right. In 1873 he is first mentioned in the Birmingham Trade Register, and it is likely that it was through his contacts in the trade that a substantial amount of the gunmaking work was carried out in Birmingham.
Lincoln Jeffries business in Birminghan continued to blossom and he became well established as a gunmaker, moving to larger premises in Whittall Street and by 1888 he had moved to 141 Steel House Lane where the business had diversified to include air canes and airguns of all types. In 1900 the range of air weapons had diversified to include break barrel types of both German and British manufacture.
Air rifle shooting became very popular after the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, the advent of inexpensive foreign designs and the need for marksmanship among men created a demand that had not previously existed. This was especially so in Birmingham and the Midlands where pub leagues were set up, and the indoor sport of bell target shooting really took off. In early 1903 there were around
300 airgun clubs in Birmingham, with around 7,000 members, later the same year there could have been as many as 600 clubs operating with a membership of around 30,000 members. Clearly there was a growing demand for air rifles.
Lincoln Jeffries developed this side of the business and was keen to improve on the designs that were increasing being brought in to his shop for repair. The break barrel designs had considerably weakness at the breach, and the barrel hinge was soon worn by the considerable strain placed upon it by the action of repeatedly cocking the rifle. The breech wear also allowed air to leak from the ineffective breach seal and soon resulted in inconsistent shooting and loss of power.
Lincoln Jefferies was soon having rifles built to his own design in the trade in small numbers, and found that these sold very quickly. Lincoln’s design incorporated a fixed barrel, with a separate loading lever placed underneath. The design was further improved with a gas tap type breach-loading that produced a perfect air tight seal that was immune to wear. This produced a rifle capable of extremely good accuracy and consistent power, and was soon winning all of the local competitions. Finding that his own manufacturing capacity was soon exceeded, Lincoln sought to find a manufacturing partner for his ingenious design. Protected by Patent 8761 of 1904 the design will be familiar to many of us today, as it was highly influential and remains in production in one form or another almost 120 years later.
Lincoln Jefferies approached the manufacturing giant B.S.A. (Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd) which was best known for the manufacture of military rifles and small arms and entered in to a manufacturing partnership. B.S.A was receptive to the idea, having spare production capacity following the cessation of hostilities in South Africa and no new government orders on the books. An agreement was entered into whereby B.S.A. would manufacture the new air rifle for Lincoln Jeffries, to be sold under his trademarks. It was also
agreed that B.S.A. would be allowed to manufacture its own version of the rifle and market it under its own trademarks.
The rifle, of course, was a great success, initially for both parties, but while Lincoln Jeffries was able to satisfy the local market where he had an excellent reputation, B.S.A. was able to satisfy a much larger global market. B.S.A. had distributers in every corner of the British Empire, and through clever marketing of the rifle as sole manufacturers, ‘The B.S.A. Air Rifle (Lincoln Jeffries Patent)’ became a huge success for the firm. Initially the rifles that B.S.A made for itself were clearly marked, but as its commercial dominance increased, mention of the inventor and patentee was quietly dropped.
Lincoln Jeffries had been out manoeuvred by the industrial giant, which watched him like a hawk. Every time Lincoln Jeffries came up with a new successful marketing strategy, it was copied by B.S.A., but on a march larger scale and with a larger budget. In the years prior to World War I, Lincoln Jeffries sold just over 5,000 of his revolutionary air rifles in Birmingham and the surrounding area, while B.S.A. sold over 70,000 of them. B.S.A continued building the air rifle, marketing it as its own design, and all reference to Lincoln Jeffries on the rifles had ceased by 1908. After World War I production resumed, and between 1919 and 1939 B.S.A. built well over 100,000 more rifles based on the Lincoln Jeffries patent.
George Lincoln Jeffries had failed to make his fortune from his innovative design, like his father, and died in 1931. The name lives on, as the firm of Lincoln Jeffries still exists today, owned by his descendents and making air gun pellets, still in Birmingham.
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