Hugh Orr

Hugh Orr (2 January 1715 – 6 December 1798) was a Scottish-born toolmaker, gunsmith and inventor in Massachusetts. He introduced to America new methods of manufacturing cannons during the Revolutionary War, and later of processing cotton.

Early life and career Orr was the son of Robert Orr of Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, and he was brought up in the trade of a gunsmith and locksmith. He emigrated to America, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts in 1737; he and two other emigrants from Lochwinnoch set up a blacksmith's shop in Easton, Massachusetts.

In June 1740 he settled at Bridgewater in Massachusetts, which was already notable for iron-manufacturing. Here he manufactured scythes and edge-tools, setting up the first trip hammer to be constructed in Massachusetts. Through him the manufacture of edge-tools spread through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

In 1748 he made five hundred muskets for the province of Massachusetts Bay, believed to have been the first weapons of the kind produced in the country.

Orr died in Bridgewater on 6 December 1798.

Family In 1742 he married Mary Bass; they had ten children. Their son Robert Orr was a colonel in the Anglo-American War and was armorer of the United States arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts.