MY ANCESTOR WAS A... WATCH AND CLOCKMAKER
Adèle Emm explores the complex craft that quite literally kept things ticking
Adèle Emm explores the complex craft that quite literally kept things ticking
Until the onset of the railways, nobody cared about the time – after all, agricultural labourers rose with the dawn and went to bed at sunset. If there was one, the church clock rang the hours and bell ringers warned the congregation when it was time for church.
The first clock to be installed on a church in England was at Salisbury Cathedral in 1386 and six years later at Wells (the mechanism is in the Science Museum, London). For Elizabethan theatregoers, a flag was hoisted above the stage when the play was about to be performed during the day.
It was only in the 19th century when railways criss-crossed the country adhering to timetables and interconnecting with other train services that national time, rather than local, became vital.
Anyone in the 16th century who owned a timepiece at home was either incredibly rich, important or both, having probably imported their clocks from Germany or the Low Countries – English craftsmen didn’t have the skills. According to The Book of English Trades and Library of the Useful Arts, published in 1818 (and free to view at archive.org), King Edward III (1312-1377) is reputed to have persuaded three Delft clockmakers to England to work and introduce clockmaking to the country. By the end of the 14th century, church clocks, at least, were relatively common.
At first there were verbal (and occasional physical) fisticuffs between blacksmiths and clockmakers over who had the rights to make them. Anyone
Until the onset of the railways, nobody cared about the time
with a background in fiddly metal work – locksmiths, needle-makers and smiths – for instance, travelled from the provinces to London and attempted to ply their trade in clock and watchmaking.
The Blacksmiths’ Guild felt particulary threatened. By the 17th century, English-born clockmakers were joined by immigrant workers who were fleeing religious persecution.
In Calvinist Geneva in 1556, goldsmiths were charged with idolatry and turned their hands from making jewellery to watches; the eventual land of the cuckoo clock was born.
It wasn’t until 1631 that The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was granted a Charter by King Charles I (late for the foundation of a guild) and the original master, wardens and assistants are named on its website ( clockmakers.org) together with a raft of interesting information.
Clock and watchmaking is skilled, meticulous and fiddly, explaining why needle-makers and jewellers took up the craft.
In the early days, watch and clockmakers made their own tools and parts, but by 1818 they assembled clocks and watches from parts that were made and supplied elsewhere.
A watchmaker needed good eyesight and utilised special magnifiers such as a loupe, the small magnifying glass worn in the eye socket. It was a profitable trade with potential to make good money.
Naturally, if a craftsman could make a watch, he could also make a clock as, after all, a clock is merely a watch on a larger scale. Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) is regarded as the father of English clockmaking. Examples of his work are found and prized amongst museums and private collectors.
His apprentices’ work, and there were many of them, is also collectible. He was a blacksmith’s son and may have worked as a blacksmith himself before being apprenticed to a London clockmaker. A master of the Company of Clockmakers in 1704, his watches were among the earliest to use balance springs, making them extremely accurate and popular among royalty, the aristocracy and wealthy merchants.
So highly was he regarded, that he was buried in Westminster Abbey sharing his grave with fellow watchmaker George Graham, who had married his niece Elizabeth.
Timepiece collection
The Company of Clockmakers’ Museum, which housed the largest collection of clocks and watches in the world, has recently moved from London Guildhall where it lived for nearly 200 years. The majority of its items date from circa 1600 to circa 1850 and is scheduled to reopen in October 2015 at the Science Museum in London.
Until then, you can find information and photographs covering the Clock Museum’s contents at www. bridgemanimages.com/ en- GB/collections/collection/ worshipful-company- ofclockmakers.
In 1797, the unpopular Watch and Clock Tax was imposed on owners of watches and clocks; it nearly ruined the industry.
Thousands of watch and clockmakers became unemployed and the tax was repealed the following year. Two volumes of the original rolls for 19 Scottish counties survive. If your ancestor is listed, you can discover how many watches and clocks they owned and how much duty was paid via scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/ digital-volumes/historical-taxrolls/clock-and-watch-taxrolls-1797-1798.
Surviving records for England and Wales are patchy and will be held at local record offices, for example, Plymouth and West Devon Record Office holds Watch and Clock Tax records for the parish of Ugborough. You can search the catalogue at discovery. national archives. gov.uk to see if there are any records that might be relevant to your wealthier ancestors.
Frenchman Claudius Saunier’s 1881 Watchmaker’s
Handbook, translated into English and found free online at archive.org, supplies a fascinating insight into some of the dangers of watchmaking.
He warned of problems with close-up work and the use of strong lenses resulting in conjunctivitis which, prior to the discovery of antibiotics, often led in those days to blindness and the subsequent loss of one’s livelihood. Recommending green cardboard lampshades to protect eyes, he cautioned against gas lamps because of the brightness of the light. He advised that eyes should be bathed with cold water and rested by staring at large stationary objects.
He also warned against employing short-sighted apprentices as their eyes would suffer more strain under the detailed work. A watchmaker needs a steady hand so Saunier also warned against alcohol and tobacco use and offered advice on how high a workbench should be. According to him, bad posture caused bad temper!
As the job involved the use of highly toxic mercury in barometers and pendulums, there was a risk of mercury poisoning as well as bad burns from acid and smelting metals.
By 1851, there were a total of 19,159 watch and clockmakers; 2,000 more 20 years later. These figures may well include the local jeweller’s shop where it was common for one man to fashion jewellery while another specialised in making and repairing clocks and watches.
Successive censuses might describe the business variously as ‘ jeweller’, ‘watchmaker jeweller’, ‘silversmith’ or ‘goldsmith’ and, in times of recession, the business would change focus in order to ensure its survival.
Isle of Man-based Roger W Smith makes watches from scratch. He makes 10 watches a year costing up to £250,000 each and just 50 people in the
world own one.