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Gilbert Henderson Harrington

American businessman (1845-1897)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ5560970 ↗
Source-derived summary

Gilbert Henderson Harrington (April 17, 1845 – June 22, 1897) was the main founder of the arms manufacturing firm of Harrington & Richardson.

Early life

Gilbert Henderson Harrington was born on April 17, 1845, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, to Cornelia Bush (née Wesson) and Henry Henderson Harrington. His father was a farmer. His maternal uncle was gun manufacturer Daniel B. Wesson. The family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, while he was still a child. As a boy, he worked at a small shop in Worcester dedicated to manufacturing guns owned by Ballard and Fairbanks.

Career

Working in the shop in Worcester, Harrington invented and patented a shell-ejecting revolver. He took over the shop after Ballard and Fairbanks discontinued making revolvers.

Harrington's uncle, Frank Wesson, started a firearms manufacturing firm in 1859. Wesson began a brief partnership with Harrington in 1871, as Wesson & Harrington, until Harrington bought him out in 1872 or 1874.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Gilbert Henderson Harrington” as american businessman (1845-1897). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gilbert, Henderson and Harrington.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1845, 1897, 1859, 1871—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1845-04-17. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Gilbert, Henderson and Harrington providing the first useful test.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5560970. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1897, 1859 and 1871.

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This entry incorporates text from “Gilbert Henderson Harrington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.