Gunsmith James Jones
Canada’s first Black gunsmith, his part in the Underground Railroad, and his rifle
This James Jones, Chatham, C.W Rifle is offered as lot 23 in Miller & Miller’s upcoming auction of Firearms, Sporting and Canadiana.
Shivers ran down the spine of auctioneer Justin Miller the first time he caressed the satin smoothness of a rifle beautifully crafted by James Monroe “Gunsmith” Jones, reputed to be the only Black gunsmith practicing in pre-Confederation Canada.
Superb craftsmanship, solid history and untold tales of the rifle combined to overwhelm Justin, co-owner of Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd. in New Hamburg, Ontario. He and his brother and partner, Ethan, have handled the sale of thousands of pieces over the years and felt similar thrills periodically. And yet, “Gunsmith Jones’ rifle is something everyone should see,” Justin says. “Perhaps a museum will purchase it. If the rifle goes to a private collector, hopefully it will be shown to the public occasionally.”
The rifle is one of more than 75 pieces featured in the Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana sale hosted by Miller & Miller Auctions on Sat., Oct. 9, 2021. Most of the items are from the Don and Joyce Blyth Collection, along with other owners’ sporting collectibles and choice additions.
The discerning Blyths took breaks from their Guelph-area farming operation to scour estate sales, attics and barns for primitive items vital to early settlers. Don obtained his first antique rifle as a schoolboy and became hooked for life. Respected as a shrewd negotiator and Canadian-made firearms expert, he had a story for every piece in his gun collection.
Three days before the 90-year-old collector died on April 6, 2021, Justin sat in Don’s gun room for the last of many wonderful conversations. Spellbound by Don’s recollections, the auctioneer filed away information to share later with bidders.
“Don mostly collected flintlock percussion rifles, marked CW for Canada West, prior to 1866,” Justin notes. Upcoming auction items include a Hovsmovh rifle believed made by an Indigenous gunsmith; a buggy gun by Dudley Booth of Ottawa; a pistol marked Rooke Berlin; a four-barreled shotgun by Michael Mater of Chippewa; and a rifle by James Monroe “Gunsmith” Jones, Canada’s only known Black gunmaker of the period.
This James Jones, Chatham, C. W. Rifle is offered as lot 23 in the October 9th sale of Firearms, Sporting and Canadiana at Miller & Miller Auctions.
James was one of a large family born to an enslaved man, who paid a dishonest slaveowner twice for his family’s freedom. The Joneses moved from the Carolinas to Ohio, where four sons attended Oberlin College, the first such institution to accept Black students. James graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1849, the fourth African American to attain this achievement.
He relocated across the border to southwestern Ontario, marrying Howard Township woman Emily Francis. In 1852, the couple joined free African Americans and escaped slaves creating new lives in Chatham, an important terminal on the Underground Railroad. In nearby Dresden, abolitionist, preacher and runaway slave Josiah Henson was already living on his Dawn Settlement and gaining fame as the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Establishing a gunsmithing business, James became known as Gunsmith Jones, proving his skill in making rifles and pocket-sized derringers. In those times, settlers depended on their guns for hunting food and protection against attackers, both animal and human.
Desiring the liberty of all enslaved people in the U.S., Gunsmith Jones listened intently to John Brown when the abolitionist came to Chatham in 1858 to drum up support for his radical plan: assemble an army of Blacks and anti-slavery sympathizers and take over the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Gunsmith Jones joined others in taking an oath of secrecy and adopting and signing a constitution with the aim of freeing 4 million slaves.
Before John Brown left Chatham, he entrusted his firearm to Gunsmith Jones in exchange for a $75 loan. The gunsmith wasn’t with John Brown and his small band in 1859 when they successfully held the armory for less than two days against the U.S. Marines and militias. Captured, tried for treason and hanged, John Brown couldn’t collect his pawned gun. The firearm is a treasured artefact displayed by the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society and Black Mecca Museum.
Close up images of the James Jones rifle offered as lot 23 in the October 9th sale.
Grateful to Canada’s first Parliament, credited with passing the first antislavery law in the British Empire in 1793, Gunsmith Jones produced an outstanding gift to bestow upon the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, on his brief train stop in Chatham in September 1860. While the prince waited in his royal coach for the scheduled presentation of Gunsmith Jones’ duplicate pair of fine derringer pistols, local officials squabbled over the appropriateness of a gift made by a Black person. They decided it was not fitting and the prince departed without his present.
The Chatham Tri-Weekly Planet newspaper reported soon afterward that a derringer pair by Gunsmith Jones won a medal at the Montreal Manufacturing and Trade Fair. The Chatham man was “one of six Canadian gunsmiths who had the skill.…to be compared with the best in the world,” according to James Gooding, publisher of the Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting launched in the 1960s.
“The publisher also complimented Don Blyth as the dean of Canadian gun collectors,” Justin says. “We are selling Don’s copy of the Canadian Gunsmith 1608-1900, authored by James Gooding and inscribed: For Don Blyth, a student, collector and darned good friend.”
By Karen Paton-Evans
Karen Paton-Evans has been sharing stories since age three and writing professionally for Canadian newspapers, magazines and private clients since 1985.
Sale Details:
Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana
October 9, 2021 | 9am
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