Rigby Celebrates a Remarkable Milestone

Back in 1775, as John Rigby hammered his first barrel into shape in a dark Dublin workshop, he likely had no idea of the legacy he was creating. Maybe he had the dream, and he certainly had the skills as an artisan, but the gunmaker certainly couldn’t have imagined what Rigby would come to represent 250 years later as an aspirational firearm brand built on legendary quality, premium performance and rugged adventure.

Like any good hunting trip, the trail to 250 years wasn’t a smooth or easy one for John Rigby, his ancestors and various principles who somehow kept the gunmaker moving forward over the course of two-and-a-half centuries. The first challenge was the Irish government itself, which seized Rigby’s entire inventory in 1798 in the face of a rising rebellion. John Rigby persevered, working away in his shop until his death in 1818, at which time his sons William and John operated the company under the name W. & J. Rigby. In the mid-1800s, the company was well known for its sporting guns and dueling pistols, gaining even wider acclaim after showing at the London and Paris Exhibitions in 1851 and 1855, respectfully.

Rigby on the Rise

After his father, William, passed away in 1858, the third John Rigby ushered the family name into international prominence and put the company on a path to greatness. Recognizing the rise of the English firearm trade and the growing market for Britain’s best guns, William moved the company’s headquarters to London and eventually closed the Dublin workshop. By placing itself right in the epicenter of the world’s gun-making trade, Rigby would have access to not only a hungry, and wealthy, customer base, but also the best craftsmen.

It didn’t hurt the company’s reputation that John Rigby was also a crack shot and top competitor, winning the Wimbledon Cup, among other titles while using a Rigby Target Rifle and adding to Rigby’s status as a serious riflemaker. John was also tapped by the British government to oversee the Royal Small Arms Factory and worked on the development of the Lee Enfield .303 rifle, further cementing the family name in the history of British firearms.

Throughout the history of the company, Rigby developed and furthered a number of notable advancements in both firearms and cartridge design. With John at the helm, Rigby introduced the .350 Rigby, .416 Rigby and .450 Nitro Express, which was later adapted to the .470 N.E. after India banned citizens from owning .450 calibers. Nearly a century later, in the 1990s, Paul Roberts, then principle of Rigby, created a rimless .450 dubbing it the .450 Rigby. Even the popular 7x57 (a.k.a. 7mm Mauser) got the Rigby treatment, gaining widespread acceptance in Great Britain and its colonies as the .275 Rigby.

While Rigby built a solid reputation for their double rifles with the development of the rising-bite lock, they didn’t sleep on the bolt-action either, recognizing its availability to sportsman who may not have the means to invest in a double gun. A close association with Mauser gave Rigby the exclusive rights to import the 1898 Mauser, adapting it into a sporting rifle with a few modifications and dubbing it the Rigby-Mauser system. The “Magnum Mauser” followed at the turn of the 20th century and evolved into a bolt-action rifle capable of facing dangerous game in the .416 Rigby chambering. The close relationship with Mauser continues to this day and forms the basis of modern Rigby’s Highland Stalker rifle and Big Game gun.

The Hunt for Adventure

Along with its innovation and craftsmanship, Rigby shotguns and rifles became well-known for their performance in the field. Far past use on formal hunts in the English countryside, Rigby’s were carried around the world to Britain’s distant colonies and beyond. Already popular among the British Raj, Rigby rifles gained a reputation for adventure thanks to famed hunter Jim Corbett. After killing the deadly tigress of Champawat with a .303 Enfield, a hunt later made famous through Corbett’s retelling in his book “Man-Eaters of Kumaon,” Corbett was gifted a Rigby bolt-action magazine rifle for his service to his country.

The Rigby carried an engraved silver plate etched with the words: ‘Presented to Mr J.G. Corbett by Sir J.P. Hewett K.C.S.I Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces in recognition of his having killed a man-eating tigress at Champawat in 1907.’ Any idea the presentation rifle might become a mantel piece was foreign to Corbett. The adventurer carried the Rigby on many of his well-known hunts for predatory leopards and tigers, including the Talla Des man-eater, which tallied up 150 kills before Corbett put an end to her man-killing ways with the 7x57, a.k.a. .275 Rigby. Thought to have been lost to history, Corbett’s Rigby surfaced little more than a decade ago and now resides in Rigby’s London workshop.

With the opening up of the Dark Continent during the Victorian Era, Rigby double rifles found their place in Africa’s history books. However, it was a different .275 Rigby rifle that would gain fame in the hands of another hunter: Walter Maitland Dalrymple Bell. A Scottish adventurer nearly from birth, W.M.D. “Karamojo” Bell made his way back to Africa in 1901 after earning a meager living shooting game as a meat hunter in the Yukon. An advocate of accuracy, Bell came to rely on a .275 Rigby magazine rifle for culling elephants when the ivory trade was at its peak. Legend has it that Bell’s Rigby was responsible for killing up to 800 elephants, a majority of them likely taken with a single brain shot as favored by the famed African hunter. The number of buffalo and other African big game killed by Bell with the Rigby is unknown.

A Fixture

Up to the mid-1900s, Rigby continued its rising path, eventually overseen by John Rigby’s son Theodore until his death in 1951. In the ensuing years, ownership was transferred to Vernon Harris and then a group of investors led by David Marx, who worked with the well-known London gun house J. Roberts & Sons to continue building Rigby firearms. J. Roberts’s son, Paul, operated under the Rigby name until 1997, when the brand was sold to American investors who moved manufacturing to California.

A dark decade followed that nearly saw the demise of Rigby before the brand changed hands to two American investors in 2010 who repatriated Rigby back to London under the oversight of the familiar J. Roberts & Sons. Three years later, the company was sold to L&O Holding, owners of Mauser, among other popular, high-end firearms brands. The leadership at L&O wisely set up Rigby in its rightful London home and placed it under the leadership of Paul Roberts’s protégé Marc Newton in 2013.

As managing director, Newton has led Rigby on a remarkable resurgence, placing it back among the leaders in British gunmaking. In May of 2025, Newton welcomed guests to a extraordinary celebration of Rigby’s 250th anniversary, standing on the poop deck of the HMS Victory, a vessel that shares the date it was ordered by the Royal Navy with the births of Rigby’s founder, John Rigby and Lord Admiral Nelson, all three in the same year of 1758.

“Twelve years ago, Rigby in the U.K. was nothing more than some ideas in my head and a box of papers in my car,” Newton told the 250 dignitaries assembled on the dock below. “To see it now, to see all of you here, not as a group of individuals, but as one unified Rigby family, is without question the proudest moment of my professional career."

The invitees, which included world leaders, industry titans, famed hunters, and this humble correspondent, were allowed a tour of HMS Victory. Stationed throughout the lower decks, Rigby craftsmen and women gave up-close demonstrations of the traditional handmade craftsmanship that goes into every Rigby rifle. Master engravers, stock makers, and action filers practiced their art in the same candlelit conditions that would have illuminated the Lord Nelson and the sailors and seaman who fought aboard the Victory in the famed Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Cheers to 250 Years

After the short tour, we were all led to the nearby HMS Warrior by Melissa Rigby, a direct descendant of founder John Rigby, proudly carrying the company’s banner. Aboard this late-1800s warship of the British Navy we’d enjoy an amazing meal curated by friend and famed chef Mike Robinson. Along the way and throughout the evening, the Waterloo Band and Bugles of the 7th Battalion, The Rifles and the Pipes and Drums of the London Scottish Regiment, played a specially commissioned “John Rigby’s Gunmakers March.” The night ended with another rousing speech by Newton accompanied by flowing champagne and a fireworks show befitting 250 years of the best of British gunmaking.

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