The Works of Individual Clocksmiths

This part of the site sets out the evidence for the work of a selection of particular clocksmiths in early modern England. In every case the clocks identifiable cannot be other than a limited sanple of their work, because the only sources of information are payments recorded in the records of ’customer“ parishes. No early modern clocksmith’s papers or account books survive at all. Given the large-scale loss of churchwardens’ accounts, not to mention the patchy recording of the names of those paid by churchwardens, a good deal of evidence has disappeared. Nonetheless, there are several instances in which clockmakers worked on church clocks in several places, of which some are shown here.

Documentary references can be supplemented by the surviving remains of clocks themselves. Maker's names are sometimes recorded on clocks or their frames, though information may have been lost as various of their components have been repaired over the years. It cannot necessarily be assumed that a clock inscribed with a maker's name was made for the church in which it is now found, since there was a market for second-hand clocks, not least via clocksmiths who received an older clock in part-exchange for a new one.

Where a clock does not carry a maker's name, it may be possible to use distinctive features in the layout of a clock, or in the form of particular components, to infer a particular clocksmith if a combination of features is sufficiently distinctive. It is often hard to distinguish, though, between features peculiar to one man or family, and those characteristic of a locality, especially where makers were locally trained.

Selected clocksmiths
  • Leonard Tennant, London, active 16__-16__
  • William(?) Edwards, London, active 16__-16__
  • Richard Roe, Epperstone (??Northamptonshire), active 16__-16__
  • Isaac Watts, Stamford (Lincolnshire), active 1690s-1710s
  • Edward Cheeke, Somerset, active 1670s-1690s
  • William Bilbye, Chew Stoke (Somerset), active 16__-16__
  • William & James Willmott, Somerset, active 1630s-1650s
  • Richard Berry, North Petherton (Somerset), active 1688-1730
  • Ralph Cloud the elder, Beaminster, Dorset, active 1680s-1710s

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    Trends

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    Hypothesising

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