School: York (Pennsylvania/PA)
Philip Heckert was a barrelmaker and gunsmith in York, PA during and immediately after the Revolutionary period. From an 1806 handwritten account: “Fire, the bore mill, burnt in 1800, it was a little more than a mile from town, near the little bridge on the Baltimore turnpike, now, this mill was useful to our gunsmiths in York, there (sic) names, Philip Heckert, Conrad Welshans, Michael Edwards, Jacob Welshans, Jacob Letter, Joseph Welshans, Ignatius Leitner, Martin Frey, Jacob Doll, Henry Pickel, George Breneise, Frederick Zorelinger.” Some rifles exist signed “P. Heckert” in script on the top barrel facet. Other barrels, signed by other York builders, will have a “P. H.” stamped on the underside, thus establishing them as products of Heckert’s boring mill.
