Did all the clock and watchmakers join the Clockmakers' Company?

​There were “great (large) tower clocks of iron” made in England from the 13th century (see Beeson- English Church Clocks 1280-1850). Old St Paul’s Cathedral had a clock made in 1286 by Bartholomew, the clockmaker. In 1344 another clockmaker, Wauter Lorgoner of Southwark, was engaged to make a dial for inside the church and restore the old clock. Southwark was the area where a number of the later turret clockmakers settled in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Most of the metal workers in London were freemen of the Blacksmiths’ Company (BC) which had been formed in the 14th century but did not receive its charter until 1471. The Goldsmiths had formed their own company in 1180 and the Armourers’ Company was founded in 1422. Although the Founders broke away from the BC to form their own company in 1614, there were brass founders who chose to stay in the BC and worked through the 17th century.
It was a natural progression for the blacksmiths working with iron to make iron Tower (turret) Clocks, and they became known as the “great clockmakers”. 

Fig 1: Great tower clock at Middle Temple - William Clement 1667

​There were a number of clockmakers working in the BC when the watchmakers arrived from Europe in the middle of the 16th century. The watchmakers were drawn to the BC because of the presence of clockmakers in that company, since watchmaking was similar to clockmaking.  By the end of the 16th century there were English watchmakers working in the BC, craftsmen like John English, Piers Powell and Robert Grinkin were established before the end of the century.
A further influx of foreign craftsmen, who settled outside the City boundary and practiced their trade without any restrictions, antagonised the watchmakers in the BC at the beginning of the 17th century. Robert Grinkin, a warden of the BC by 1617, together with his former apprentices decided to petition the King in order to form their own company so that they could regulate and control the watchmaking trade in and around London. 

 They were joined by John Smith, a former apprentice of John English and James Vautrolier, son Thomas a denizen watchmaker from France, who was freed by patrimony in 1610. These freemen of the BC together with one or two other watchmakers from other companies signed a petition in 1622 to form their own company of watchmakers. 
​They were unsuccessful at that time but the BC tried to accommodate the watchmakers in a joint company and enrolled the foreign watchmakers in 1628. No agreement could be reached so the watchmakers tried again to purchase their own charter from the King and were successful in 1631.

Fig 2. Dover Castle clock movement

It was the former apprentices of Robert Grinkin – Sampson Shelton, John Willow, Richard Morgan, John Harris and Robert Grinkin junior who were responsible for running the new company in its early years, together with John Smith and James Vautrolier. While Robert Grinkin’s first apprentice, Edmund Bull, his last apprentice Richard Crayle and the apprentices of John Willow and Richard Morgan were responsible for the continued success of watchmaking in the BC.

Robert Grinkin’s trade descent can be traced right through the 17th and 18th centuries culminating with watchmakers who were also making chronometers as well as watches in the early 19th century. (Note: You can find the trade descents of Robert Grinkin and many other 17th and 18th century clockmakers in my book Early clock and watchmakers of the Blacksmiths’ Company).

Fig. 3: An early lantern clock - Anon

Unfortunately, the new company was called the Clockmakers’ Company but the great clockmakers wished to remain in the Blacksmiths’ Company – the mother company, so the result was a second company of clockmakers was formed. The Common Council in 1636 had stipulated that the watchmakers could only invite watchmakers and the makers of domestic clocks to join the new company.  The Clockmakers’ Company (CC) obeyed this rule until the Fire of London in 1666 but after the Fire they started to enrol the ‘great’ clockmakers, and so craftsmen like Daniel Quare and Thomas Tompion were enrolled as great clockmakers in the 1670s.
​Although the watchmakers had gained their independence by forming the Clockmakers’ Company, they struggled to survive during the 17th century. While the clock and watchmakers in the BC continued to prosper. Most of the Wardens and Masters of the BC throughout the 17th century were in fact clock and watchmakers. So one could argue that the BC was the first Company of Clockmakers and the new company formed in 1631 was actually the second Company of Clockmakers.

By the third quarter of the 17th century the clockmakers in the BC were supplying clock movements to the clockmakers in the CC.
You can read more about the struggles between the two companies in “Early Clock and Watchmakers of the Blacksmiths’ Company” and also the progress made by the clock and watchmakers in the BC as they spread to other parts of England.

You might also be interested in: 
Great clockmakers of the 17th Century
Great clockmakers in the Blacksmiths' Company