Dang you ask good questions...

It seems they went bankrupt before 1860 and who ever bought the machinery went on and got a contract in 1862 to make .54 Colt rifles. The factory was in vermont and I think still stands.

I found these tidbits....

"When the Robbins and Lawrence factory in Windsor, Vermont, created interchangeable parts for their guns in 1851, they caught the attention of mechanics in England who heralded their new technologies as the "American System." At armories in Springfield, Massachusetts, and at the Colt manufacturing plant in Hartford, Connecticut, arms manufacturers created special purpose machines and highly precise gauges to make interchangeable parts. This meant that guns could be repaired on the battlefield, changing the nature of war. The new "American System" opened the way for many new industries ranging from mass-produced sewing machines to organs. Suddenly, a whole new world was open for consumers."

"Nicanor Kendall, Richard Lawrence, and Samuel Robbins became partners in 1844 and won a government contract to make 10,000 rifles. These were not made at the prison, but in a new brick armory built by the Robbins, Kendall & Lawrence Company. In 1847 Kendall left the company. Lawrence and Robbins became famous for introducing at their factory the use of interchangeable parts in the manufacturing process. Before they went bankrupt in 1857, due to an unexpected cancellation of a major contract, they employed over 150 men. Their firm was also crucial in nurturing the careers of the men who started Vermont’s important machine tool industry in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

http://www.vermonthistory.org/freedom_and_unity/1800s/american.html

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David Upton