1808 Contract Musket by Waters and Whitmore for Massachusetts,
Millbury, Massachusetts, 1815.
42 5/16 in., .72 caliber round barrel stamped on the top of the barrel with Massachusetts proof marks 'P' and 'M' and 'R.S. 1815'; flat lock plate with pointed tail stamped '1815' and with eagle over 'US' and 'MILLBURY' below the pan, the inside of the lock, the steel, and cock stamped 'F'; walnut stock with no obvious inspector's marks, iron furniture of proper form with sling swivels and steel rammer with button head and plain end.
Overall lg. 57 1/4 in.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Vince Dempsey, March 20, 2010.

Note
Elijah and Asa Waters and Nathaniel Whitmore signed a contract on September 8, 1808, to supply 5,000 muskets at the cost of $10.75. In November 1815, Inspector of Arms Henry H. Perkins inspected 500 arms at Waters' and Whitmore's Millbury factory whereupon he found 'the Locks so very bad/much worse than the old Springfield pattern, which is sufficiently defective, that I was compelled to reject the whole.' After this it seems that all 500 muskets were delivered directly to Massachusetts as part of its allotment of arms per the U.S. Militia Act of 1808. (Peter A. Schmidt, U.S. Military Flintlock Muskets and Their Bayonets, The Early Years 1790-1815, (Woonsocket, R.I.; Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 2006), pp. 216 and 221).

Barrel, lock, and furniture are generally bright with scattered light gray/brown mottling, lock functions properly but mainspring has been replaced; stock has a faint hairline crack at the middle band and a repaired break through the wrist.