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Stan Cook's Gunmakers & Allied Trades Index

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[including Gunsmiths, Gunlock makers and Gunbarrel makers]

Stan Cook established the Gunmakers & Allied Trades Index in 1982. As of April 2004 over 9000 surnames are listed, covering a total of at least 25,000 individual workers. The index continues to grow at the rate of about thirty names each month, and additional information most welcome.

The collection has information about gun trade people working in the U.K. from the start of the trade before 1500 up to 1901. The sources include parish and church records, many trade directories, various census records, the documents of the Board of Ordnance, the registers of the London Gunmakers' Company, apprenticeship records, patent listings and a variety of publications.

The database includes a complete index of the London Gunmakers' Company apprentice records from 1656 to 1902; an index of the gunmakers listed in the Inland Revenue Apprentice Stamp Duty records, 1710-1775; a list of the gun trade people who were listed in the 1851 census of Devon, Norfolk, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and large parts of other counties; a list of at least 600 Wills of guntrade people. Information about various fire insurance policies taken out by gunmakers. An index of the guntrade people recorded in the 1881 census [over 7300 names] of the UK [this includes Scotland and the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey]. So far the names of about 2000 guntrade workers have been collected from the 1901 census. These are obviously subject to the special copyright provisions of this particular census.

Beyond the UK records, the records of guntrade people [mostly of UK or Irish origins] in Australia, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and some parts of the USA, along with the records of a number of British Trading organisations such as the Hudson Bay Company and British East India Company, have also been researched.

Due to illness Stan Cook is currently not actively researching or responding to queries.  The records are being prepared with the intention of (hopefully) making them more widely available when time permits.  In the meantime the email address below is still active.

e-mail address: gunmakers_cook20[at]btinternet[dot]com