The London Armoury Company Kerr’s Patent Revolver is one of the most distinctive and recognizable of all Civil War era handguns. The side mounted hammer and removable side plate were not common features in large bore handguns of the era and result in a unique silhouette. The Kerr patent revolver was invented by James Kerr, who was awarded two patents for improvements to Roberts Adams earlier revolver design. Kerr had been a founding member of the London Armoury Company, which was established on 9 February 1856 and of which Adams was the Managing Director during the late 1850s. It is interesting to note that Kerr was Adams’ cousin and had previously worked with him at Deane, Adams & Deane. Initially the London Armoury Company (LAC) focused on producing Model 1854 Beaumont-Adams patent revolvers with an eye towards obtaining lucrative English military contracts. When significant orders were not forthcoming, the company shifted its focus to manufacturing the British Pattern 1853 “Enfield” Rifle Musket for both the English government and private sale. This caused a rift within the company management that culminated with the departure of Adams from L.A.C. and the elevation of Kerr to the position of factory superintendent. With the departure of Adams, and the perceived need to offer some form of revolver for sale, the company purchased Kerr’s patent rights and started to produce the Kerr patent revolver in 1859. The first pistol was completed in March of 1859 and was tested at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock on April 25, 1859. The pistol was typical of large bore English handguns of the era, in that it was 54-Bore (about .442 caliber) and had a 5-chambered cylinder. The guns were manufactured with barrel lengths that varied slightly, with the earliest guns having barrels around 5 7/8” in length and the later pistols having slightly shorter barrels that varied between about 5 ½” and 5 5/8”. While the large majority of the pistols produced were in 54-Bore, a small number of very early and very late production revolvers were manufactured in 80-Bore (approximately .387 caliber). 

The majority of the pistols used a single action mechanism, not a double action mechanism as the trigger position in the center of the triggerguard implies. The hammer could only be cocked by pulling it back manually, but pulling the trigger could rotate the cylinder. This was a byproduct of the cylinder locking system, which relied on a pivoting arm that was actuated by the trigger. This arm locked the cylinder in place when the gun was fired. This was very different from the standard spring-loaded cylinder stop found in frames of most American made revolvers. This system also eliminated the need to machine stop slots in the cylinder, as the rear face of cylinder was where the arm locked it into position. Only a handful of Kerr revolvers were manufactured as “self-cocking” (double action) revolvers, and they are very rare today. 

The Kerr also featured a unique, frame mounted cylinder arbor pin that was removed from the rear of the pistol, much like on the Colt 1855 Side Hammer “Root” designs, instead of the more common location at the front of the cylinder. This made the pistol easier and safer to manipulate when the cylinder had to be removed from the pistol. The early production Kerr revolvers had a small setscrew on the left side of the frame, forward of the cylinder that prevented the cylinder arbor pin from being withdrawn from the rear of the frame. The later production revolvers had a frame mounted spring on the left side, similar in appearance to the Model 1851 Adams patent safety, which retained the arbor pin. Adams had used a similar arbor pin retention spring on the frame of his 1854 patent revolvers.  Early production revolvers had a wide groove machined in the topstrap, while the later production guns had a flat topstrap without a groove. The early guns also had a loading lever that pivoted on a screw located at the lower front edge of the frame, under the barrel. The later production guns moved this pivot point higher and closer to the cylinder, making it somewhat stronger and allowing more torque to be applied to the lever when loading tight fitting ammunition. Most of these early features were phased out in the upper 2,XXX to middle 3,XXX serial number range, although some of the features appear somewhat randomly through about the middle of revolver production, suggesting that sometimes older parts were used to complete orders when time was of the essence. 

Although the design was reliable and fairly robust, the London Armoury Company did not find any British military contracts forthcoming for their pistol. Between the introduction of the Kerr in 1859 and the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, only about 1,000-1,500 of the revolvers were manufactured, and even fewer were sold. Most of these pistols were sold commercially, both in Great Britain and in the US, with about 100 of the revolvers being purchased by an English Volunteer unit the 1st Sussex Artillery Volunteers. 

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Caleb Huse, the South’s primary purchasing agent in England, engaged the London Armory Company to produce all of the Kerr’s Patent revolvers that they could for delivery to the Confederacy. It is believed that nearly all of the L.A.C.’s output of Kerr revolvers from April of 1861 through the close of the Civil War were produced on contract for the Confederacy, with about 9,000 pistols produced and shipped to the south during that time. It is also estimated that the London Armoury Company produced about 70,000 Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Muskets during the same time frame. The estimate regarding revolver production is borne out by the extant examples with Confederate provenance or marks, which tend to exist in the 1,500 to about the 10,500 serial number range. To date, at least three separate Confederate government contracts have been identified for the purchase of Kerr revolvers. Two were army contracts, and one was a 1,000-gun contract for the Confederate Navy. The Naval contract was quite early, as a reference to the purchase of Kerr revolvers by CSN Commander James D. Bulloch was made in a diary entry by Confederate purchasing agent Major Edward Anderson dated August 6, 1861. Many of the army contract Kerr revolvers were financed through the Charleston, SC based firm of Fraser, Trenholm & Company and delivered by their subsidiary John Fraser & Company. A minimum of 3,160 Kerr revolvers were delivered directly to Confederate arsenals by Fraser. In addition to the three government contracts, an unknown number of Kerr’s Patent revolvers were acquired speculatively for sale privately and to the Confederate military once they reached the south. This may account for the number of Kerr revolvers that exist today with unquestionable Confederate provenance, but without the JS/{Anchor} Confederate inspection mark. One of the standard indicators of CS importation and usage of a Kerr revolver is the presence of the enigmatic JS/{Anchor} that is often located on the front of the wooden grip of the pistols, below the grip frame tang. This is the inspection mark of John Southgate, who acted as a “viewer” (arms inspector) for the Confederacy. However, the absence of this mark is not necessarily an indication that the pistol was not a CS purchase. 

As the information above outlines that the majority of Kerr’s over serial number 1,500 and below 10,500 were produced on contract for the Confederacy. To date, the lowest numbered Kerr to bear the JS/{Anchor} inspection mark that I am aware of is in the lower third of the 7XX range, and the highest verifiable mark is just under 10,000. Over the years, a number of Kerr’s with spurious JS/{Anchor} marks have been noted, often found on guns that did not have them when they were first documented during the past 30 to 40 years but have had them magically appear over the course of time. The best concrete primary source evidence of how high the CS used serial numbers of Kerr revolvers reached is the Squad Roll of Lt. Julian Pratt of Company H of the 18th Virginia Cavalry. This document lists the revolvers in possession of his squad of cavalry in July of 1864. On the list are seven Kerr revolvers that range between #9240 and #9974. Since the Confederacy would continue to import Kerr pistols throughout the end of the war, the last documented shipment was eight cases in March of 1865, it is not unreasonable to extrapolate CS purchases into about the 10,500 serial number range. It is interesting to note that two of the Kerr revolvers on the Pratt Roll are known to survive today, and revolver #9974 does not have a JS/Anchor mark. This indicates that this gun was a speculative purchase and not a government contract purchase, which would have received the JS/{Anchor} inspection mark.

While very scarce today, a number of Kerr revolvers were imported with a complete set of accouterments and accessories that would have been included in a cased set. According to the Payne Ledger, some 900 Kerr revolvers arrived at the port of Wilmington, NC on October 31, 1864. These guns also had the following accessories: 

“Spare Nipples & Cloth Bags, 900 Powder Flasks, 900 Cleaning Rods, 450 Steel Nipple Keys, 180 Bullet Moulds, 180 Mainsprings, 180 Trigger Springs, 90,000 Skin Cartridges, 108,000 Percussion Caps”. 

The guns were delivered by the blockade-runner Hope and were part of the consignment purchased through John Fraser & Company. 500 of the guns and their associated accouterments were subsequently delivered to the Selma Arsenal, and the other 400 and their accessories were delivered to the Richmond Arsenal. The presence of accessories like cleaning rods, powder flasks, cloth bags and the combination gun tools (listed as “steel nipple keys”), suggest that the guns were purchased as cased sets, and were subsequently repacked into the standard 20 guns per box lead lined cases that most Kerr revolvers were delivered to the Confederacy in. The powder flasks and cloth bags were certainly of limited utility for guns that were designed to be used with “skin cartridges”. Bullet molds were typically delivered to the Confederacy at a ratio of 1 for every 20 long arms but in this case, they were delivered at the ratio of 1 for every 5 pistols. The cleaning rods would certainly have been useful in the field, but this is the only report I can find of cleaning rods being purchased by the Confederacy for use with revolvers. All of this suggests that these accessories originated in cased Kerr revolver sets. It seems quite likely that additional cased sets were acquired on a speculative basis for delivery to the south as well. Today all of these accessories are extremely rare, most especially the special Kerr revolver combination gun tool and cone (nipple) wrench. 

With the conclusion of the American Civil War, the London Armoury Company quickly succumbed to the loss of its single largest customer. The company closed exactly one year after the end of the American Civil War, in April of 1866. It believed that the remaining factory assets and machinery were sold to a gun making company in Spain the following year. Kerr himself did remain in business for some time after this and assembled and sold Kerr revolvers from the existing stock of parts. This accounts for the post 11,000 serial numbered pistols occasionally encountered, usually in relatively nice condition. On a side note, collectors and researchers have long debated the correct pronunciation for James Kerr’s last name. According to Val Forgett Jr., gun collector, researcher and current owner of Navy Arms and Old Western Scrounger, his extensive research indicates that even the British disagree about the pronunciation, but the most correct pronunciation would almost certainly be KARR, while the next most common pronunciation would be KARE. The Americanized pronunciation is CUR.

The Kerr’s Patent Revolver offered here is a very cool, period modified example that is just above the Pratt List range of serial numbers and is number 9991. That is only seventeen numbers above the highest gun on the Pratt List, #9974. That suggests this gun arrived in the next box after #9974. The revolver has an interesting period modification to the grip on the reverse, opposite the side mounted lock. Part of the grip has been cut away and a brass belt has been installed. The brass is repurposed from some other item, possibly a spur or other piece of brass horse equipment. The hook is inset into the grip and is 2 3/8” in overall length with the actual hook portion 1 3/8” in length. The hook is slightly tapered and is nominally ½” wide at the widest point and about 3/8” wide at the narrowest point. The brass has grooves lightly cut into it that was probably intended to add some friction to make the belt hook more effective. The image of a belt hook modified revolver certainly fits the image of the Confederate cavalier armed with multiple handguns; an image burned into the popular culture memory by Clint Eastwood’s character in the movie the Outlaw Josey Wales.

Like #9974 on the Pratt Roll, this gun is not marked with a JS/{Anchor} inspection mark, suggesting both of the revolvers were speculative purchases rather than a government contract handgun. The revolver remains in VERY GOOD condition overall. Like most Kerr revolvers, this one is marked on the lock plate with the legend LONDON ARMORY Co,,. The right side of the frame is marked: KERR’s PATENT 9991. The left side of the frame is marked with the two-line oval cartouche of the London Armoury Company and reads LONDON in an arc over ARMOURY, which is arched in the opposite directly. The left upper flat of the octagonal barrel is marked near the frame with the initials L.A.C. along with the commercial London view and proof marks including a {Crown}/GP and {Crown}/V. Alternating {Crown}/V and {Crown}/GP proof marks are also found between the chambers of the cylinder. The pistol is also marked with the typical London Armoury Company assembly numbers. The assembly number is 396 and the number is present on the face of the cylinder, inside the trigger guard, and inside the bottom of the frame. These assembly numbers are often illegible due to wear at the face of the cylinder and inside the frame, and only the number in the triggerguard typically survives clearly readable. The original cylinder pin retention spring is present and secure. The action of the pistol needs some mechanical attention. It appears that the hand was chipped and repaired, probably during the period of use. However the hand appears to be slightly over long now, so it does not correctly reengage the ratchet on the rear cylinder after the gun is fired. By slightly rotating the cylinder, the hand resets to the correct position and then operates as it should. A competent restoration gunsmith could likely resolve the issue and fix the timing and hand engagement issue. The balance of the action works correctly, once the hand is properly engaged on the ratchet. The original loading lever is present and functions smoothly. The gun retains no original finish to speak of, but some minute trace hints of blue are present in the most protected areas. Some traces of muted case colors are present on the loading lever and lock plate. Overall,  the revolver has developed a moderately oxidized mottled dull gray patina with scattered brownish patches and some plum-colored tones. The metal of the frame and the 5 ¾” barrel is primarily smooth with some scattered areas of minor surface roughness and freckled oxidized discoloration. The cylinder has a richer bluish-gray toned patina that is a mixture of some flashes of blue, oxidized plum brown metal. The cylinder shows moderate oxidation and somewhat scattered patches of light surface roughness as well. The color casehardened lock, hammer and loading lever have a rich, dusky plum brown patina with some muted mottling that suggests the original case colored finish.  These parts also show mottled oxidized discoloration and some scattered freckles and patches of surface roughness. The fire blued small parts like the arbor pin retention spring and the loading lever retention spring retain a dull bluish color with some surface oxidation. The metal, particularly the barrel, shows some moderate holster wear and some softening of the sharp edges of the octagonal barrel. Like most Kerr revolvers, the gun has a lanyard ring in the butt cap, and it remains in very good, completely functional condition. The ring and butt cap have a rich, uncleaned dark brown patina. The original brass post front sight is present on the end of the barrel near the muzzle but shows significant holster wear and is now only a nub of its former self. The barrel retains its original crowning at the muzzle. The bore of the pistol is in GOOD condition. The bore is dark and worn but retains decent rifling. The bore shows moderate amounts of pitting and oxidation along its length. The one-piece checkered walnut grip is in GOOD condition as well. It is well worn and shows moderate wear and loss to the checkering, as well as a narrow 1” chip missing along the lower edge of the lock plate. As noted at the beginning the reverse of the grip has been modified to include an ersatz brass belt hook, which may have been made from a broken spur or similar piece of repurposed cast brass equipment.

Overall, this very cool example of what is most assuredly a Confederate imported Kerr’s Patent Revolver in the Pratt List serial number range, with a wonderful period field modification to the grip. The serial number clearly indicates that the pistol would have been produced and delivered to the Confederacy prior to the July of 1864 date of Captain Julian Pratt’s Squad list, and probably at least some months earlier than that. The lack of the JS/{Anchor} mark is in no way detrimental, as the gun is well within the parameters of those Kerr Revolvers on the Pratt List and one of the two known surviving guns on that list is not JS/{Anchor} marked either. Do not miss this opportunity to acquire a somewhat salty, likely late war acquired Confederate revolver with a really wonderful “been there, done that” look. This will be a nice addition to any collection of Civil War import arms and is priced quite attractively when you consider that most Confederate-made handguns sell in the $20,000+/- range.

ON HOLD/LAYAWAY