[RJay]

Very few gunsmiths in the age of flint build rifles from scratch. They would buy a ready made lock, perhaps from a catalog, barrels from another source, or they might even make his own barrels but almost always the lock was from a specialty maker. They then would build a rifle or pistol. You've already identified what you have, a lock made by A.V. Walton. There may be contributor's who have the reference that can tell you the time frame that this maker was in business. But, if you are looking to identify what firearm it was attached too, well , I think you have problems. Many times these locks were reused several times before they were retired. It may have been on a number of different firearms.