GUEST: It's always been in our family.

Uh, my dad had it, it was in our house when I was growing up in San Francisco.

And when I moved to Colorado in 1996, I brought it out here with me.

So it's been here in Colorado since then.

My third great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War and, um, we have it all documented that he joined the militia at 17 and had to supply his own rifle.

And this is the one that he brought with.

APPRAISER: What was your ancestor's name?

GUEST: His name was Jonathan Dustin Cheney.

APPRAISER: Okay, and where was he from?

GUEST: He was from Boston, Massachusetts.

APPRAISER: So Jonathan Cheney was actually from Hampstead, New Hampshire.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...which is a town right over the Massachusetts border from Haverhill.

And in December of 1775, he enlisted in Captain Thomas Cogswell's company of Colonel Loammi Baldwin's 26th Continental Regiment.

The militia at the time, you were supposed to be armed and equipped as according to law, which meant when you were 16 years old, you were supposed to have a gun and all your equipments to perform militia duty.

However, there were those that did not that had to be supplied a gun.

I also have the list of who was paid for bringing their own gun.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And he was on it.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

(laughs) APPRAISER: And he was paid six shillings.

And he enlisted in December of 1775.

He was involved in the siege of Boston.

They were stationed in Chelsea, Mass., and in Brookline, Mass., at Brookline Fort until the British evacuated March 17, 1776.

After that time, Colonel Baldwin's regiment marched to New York and were badly beaten by the British and pushed out of New York into Pennsylvania, where George Washington came up with a, a brilliant idea to attack Trenton.

And your ancestor was involved in the attack on Trenton.

GUEST: Wow.

Yeah.

APPRAISER: So, this gun has some really good history to it.

(laughing) GUEST: Wow, that's really good.

APPRAISER: So now to the gun itself.

It's not a rifle.

A rifle has rifling in the barrel, which guides a bullet out of the muzzle-- uh, more accurate.

This is a smoothbore musket.

This gun was built for military use.

It was made by Richard Wilson in London, who was a commercial supplier of weapons that came to America during the French and Indian War in 1755, '56.

So this gun was probably built and, and brought to this country between 1754 and 1756.

And it's marked "Wilson" on the lock, which is very hard to see.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And on the top of the barrel, it's marked "London."

And then you can see the proof marks on the left side of the breech with "R.W.," which is for Richard Wilson.

It does have some condition issues.

The cock has been replaced.

In order to keep this gun functioning, during the Revolution, they refaced the hammer so it would continue to spark.

The hammer spring's been replaced.

Um, you've got a little bit of wood loss here.

And you can see here where the stock was broken and then replaced.

APPRAISER: You've also got two ramrod pipes that are missing.

And the ramrod's missing, but a ramrod-- you, you can find the correct ramrod for it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So, even with the condition issues, though, this is a really rare gun.

And these things that were replaced on it and repaired were done during the period.

So you've got a great gun with a great history.

At auction, uh, I would put $15,000 to $20,000 on it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And that's a conservative number.

Wow.

I think it would go higher than that, given the history that's with it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I would put an insurance value on this gun in the $25,000 to $30,000 range.

GUEST: Wow, thank you.