Specifically guns from the late 1800's*
I have a Billinghurst target gun owned by Benjamin F. Green. I have some documentation saying that Benjamin shot a gun owned by David Crocket. If anyone could help me learn more it would be greatly appreciated.
William Billinghurst was a New York gunsmith now noted for his under-hammer-style muzzle-loading target rifles, though he made many other kinds. The under-hammer action was an elegant design, mechanically: the triggerguard was the mainspring, the hammer was cut with notches so there was no tumbler, and the whole assembly was set in a sturdy wrist-section made of brass. Not only did it eliminate some of the parts of the traditional design, it also got rid of a few weak points: the lock mortise and wrist of a traditional wooden stock were prone to damage ( the wrist on many old rifles is cracked through) and the hot gas from the percussion cap tended to eat away the wood on the upper lock mortise, as well. But it came rather late in the history of muzzle-loaders, and perhaps because of that didn't become immensely popular- another reason being that standard percussion locks were more available to gunsmiths and they already knew how to build with them. It seems to have been mostly used in the northeast, from about 1840 until 1855- and Billinghurst was in Rochester, NY in that time. Billinghurst also would make the Billinghurst-Requa Battery gun, a multi-barreled breechloading weapon that apparently saw a little use in the Civil War- though I am not sure of the whole story of it.
As far as Crockett's rifles: one of them is at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville: it's a classic Kentucky from the late 18th c., looks like the style of York County PA. Another is at the Alamo ( though I don't know if it's got any provenance linking it to the battle) and is a later rifle, maybe circa 1822, like the sideplate says, but the rifle has been altered and that stamping on the sideplate is pretty crude, could have been done when the cruder inlays were added later..... It's in the style of the Shenandoah Valley, where Crockett spent some time as a youngster, but he was long gone from there by 1822. In any case, it would not be implausible that Green got to shoot one of them. Also, I would not be surprised if a poor boy from east Tennessee owned more than two or three rifles when he later became a celebrity and could afford them.