Whitfield’s gun shop: contents of a 19th-century gunsmith’s shop

Abstract

SUMMARY On 7 November 1864, George Whitfield, Australia’s most prominent gunsmith, was shot and killed in front of his King Street shop in Sydney by his competitor, Patrick McGlinn. Whitfield’s goods-in-trade were auctioned off and the remaining contents of the gun shop were discarded down an abandoned stone-lined well at the back of the property, which was excavated in 2010. The gun parts, ammunition and tools recovered from the well present a picture of a gunsmith’s workshop in colonial New South Wales. This artefact collection represents one of the first archaeological investigations of the gunsmithing trade in Australia.