Well, we aren't exactly inundated with posts about Texas here.   

Specific serial number records for Canadian military longarms are extremely sparse, and I am unaware of any for the Spencers.

Another interesting tidbit from Edgecombe: although 100 Spencer carbines were shipped to Fort Garry, only 93 were received ... seven of them apparently having been stolen en route!

He also references a record that, as of 1 April 1874, Fort Garry Stores still held all 250 Peabody rifles, but only one Spencer carbine.

Wow! Thanks so much for the background, and the photos. I got a real shiver from the pics.
As to your one point ... "In October of 1870, 100 Spencer carbines (along with 250 Peabody rifles) were shipped by the Dominion Militia Department to the Fort Garry Stores for service in "the North West Territories" (i.e what became Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.) Apparently, it was from these Stores that Spencer carbines were issued to the thirty Métis men hired as armed escort and scouts for the British contingent of the Boundary Commission surveying and marking the 49th Parallel west to the Continental Divide in 1872 and 1873.  These men were permitted to retain their carbines following their service."

Are you aware whether the serial numbers from the carbines shipped for service in the "North West Territories" were ever recorded?

Dan, this is a repeat of the response I posted in the Spencer forum here ...

As a Model 1865 Spencer located in Canada, there is a more than passing chance this carbine might be one of the Spencers acquired for militia service by the United Province of Upper & Lower Canada (i.e. pre-Confederation Canada), along with other metallic-cartridge breechloaders, in response to the Fenian Raids of 1866-70.

In 1866, the Province of Canada bought 1,300 M'1865 Spencer carbines, while the British War Department bought 1,000 M'1865 Spencer carbines and 2,000 M'1865 Spencer rifles, which were loaned (and eventually transferred outright) to Canada.(Other breechloading acquisitions were 3,000 Peabody rifles and 1,000 Starr carbines, both of which were single-shot.

A Company of the Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto, armed with Spencer rifles and carbines -


In October of 1870, 100 Spencer carbines (along with 250 Peabody rifles) were shipped by the Dominion Militia Department to the Fort Garry Stores for service in "the North West Territories" (i.e what became Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.) Apparently, it was from these Stores that Spencer carbines were issued to the thirty Métis men hired as armed escort and scouts for the British contingent of the Boundary Commission surveying and marking the 49th Parallel west to the Continental Divide in 1872 and 1873.  These men were permitted to retain their carbines following their service.

Thanks for posting this for me. A 'bang-up job".

I have a book; Policing a Pioneer Province, The BC Provincial Police, 1858-1950, 1991, Lynne Stonier-Newman. It has two long sections on Cst. john Kirkup. He was the sole peace officer in Yale during chaotic times. In Revelstoke in 1884, he became involved in a jurisdictional dispute between the province that had jurisdiction over liquor & licencing while the Dominion Police and NWMP claimed juricdiction over railways which were being built through the Rockies. The federal rule was prohibition for anywhere around the railroad. The Dominion Police seized licensed alcohol from a vendor off railroad property. During the dispute two Privincials were in jail and two Mounties were charged with obstruction and assaulting peace officers. As well a commissioner of the Dominion police and three of his constables were under arrest. Two magistrates, one of them Col McLeod late of the NWMP, settled the matter with minor fines, thus averting an outright "Battle" between the opposing police forces