Of the Elizabethan and Stuart Times
George III took clocks to pieces. Unfortunately he was not that skilled at putting them back together again and left many 'parts' in boxes! But most amateur clockmakers are at least able to competently reassemble a movement and although not dealing with the 'top' names such as Tompion most dealers and restorers will come across a number of clocks by extremely competent craftsmen, a number of whom worked before the 'father of English Clockmaking' in the Elizabethan period.
In the early days every part of the movement was made by the master, his work people and apprentices. It is presumed that clockmaking really had its start in this country in 1368 when Edward III granted licence and protection to three men engaged in their craft from Delft in Holland to practice their craft in England. The first clocks would have been made for church and castle towers, an example being the Dover Castle clock which stands in the Science Museum, London, although there were domestic clocks of the lantern type in the period of Henry VIII.
Queen Elizabeth was the first enthusiastic Royal patron of clockmakers encouraging her favourites to give her jewelled examples which are still on record with many described such as the inventory for twenty-four pieces showing the time keepers to be of gold furnished with diamonds, emeralds and rubies. The chief watchmaker to Elizabeth was Bartholomew Newsam who was born in York but worked in London spending most of his time in a dwelling near Somerset House, of which he held a crown lease. He is one of the earliest makers of portable clocks with a lovely example by him being a table clock in the British Museum. He became a wealthy man leaving on his death in 1593 property around the country as well as several gardens in London.
Edward East was another eminent maker among early horologists having been watchmaker to both Charles I and Charles II. He would often attend Charles I at the tennis courts when one of his watches would often be the prize, although E.J. Wood in his Curiostities believes it was Charles II. Charles I kept an East watch next to his bed and on his death this was passed to Sir Thomas Herbert. East made night clocks, for which he was well known, to Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II, which is referred to by the diarist Pepys. Charles I granted the charter to the Clockmakers Company in 1631 with Edward East becoming one of its founding members.
All the early clocks were operated by a crown wheel and verge irrespective of the means of power and it was the introduction of the pendulum into England in the middle of the seventeenth century that made great strides in the construction of clocks.
The story of the first use of the pendulum in this country is a particularly interesting historical event with some of the incidents recorded in two diaries of the time.
Christian Huygens saw the the value of Galileo's discovery of the use of the periodic vibrations of a suspened weight in time-keeping for astronomical purposes applying the principal to a clock movement. He was in touch with a Dutch clockmaking family living in London, the Fromanteels, and came to England at their suggestion, with the object of getting recognition for his invention. Louis XIV, the French King, heard of Huyghen's visit and instructed his ambassador in London to see the Dutch astronomer and send back a report. The ambassador invited Huyghens to dinner and sent back the report, all of which is recorded in the diplomat's diary. Another diarist, John Evelyn, was also at the dinner and refers to the meeting. The practical work of all of this can be seen in the movements then made by Ahasueus Fromanteel, an example of which is in the collection of the Clockmakers' Company in the Guildhall Museum. But the verge escapment with the short pendulum was not the most accurate of time-keepers, itwas the use of the anchor escapement with its long pendulum that led to more accurate timekeeping. It is Dr Hooke who is credited with the invention of the anchor escapement with William Clement having made use of it about 1670, at a time when Thomas Tompion was becoming well known as a clockmaker and it is probable that the two worked closely, both being prominent members of the Clockmakers' Company. Clement also used a spring suspension for the pendulm whereas previously the pendulum was suspended by a cord.
The end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the next were great times in English clockmaking being a time when science was becoming an important part of life beginning with the exact measurement of time. The Clockmakers' Company with its powers of regulation led to sub-divisions in the various crafts required in clockmaking leading makers away from being founders and blacksmiths and giving them the ability to concentrate on their own specialist craft. In the British Museum is a watch by Samson Shelton, circa 1625, a maker who was originally a member of the Blacksmiths' Company and whowas one of those who worked toward the foundation of a seperate Clockmakers' Company on the plea that clockmaking had reached a stage when it should no longer be rgarded as a provinence of the blacksmith!
