PENDULUM PUBLICATIONS
  • Home
  • Books
    • Early clock and watchmakers of the Blacksmiths' Company
    • Clockmakers of Northumberland and Durham
    • The Turret Clocks of T.Cooke & Sons of York
    • North Country Clockmakers
  • Articles
    • Was Tompion a member of the BC?
    • The Rothbury Sundials
    • Was Fromanteel the mystery maker?
    • Deodatus Threlkeld
    • Abraham Fromanteel
    • Thomas Hampson
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Purchase our Books about early clock and watchmakers
    • Testimonials
    • Photo Gallery
    • Contact
  • SEASONAL PROMOTIONS
    • FREE DELIVERY - Early Clockmakers of the Blacksmiths' Company
    • Gifts for FAMILY & friends
    • SEASONAL PROMO: Buy this set of specialist clock books
  • BLOG
    • Latest post
    • All BLOG posts

PENDULUM PUBLICATIONS BLOG

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

12/14/2022

0 Comments

 
​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”. 
The tower clock at Middle Temple - William Clement
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.
Picture
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).
Early Lantern clockPicture
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


0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Keith Bates is an amateur horologist who has been researching clocks, watches and chronometers and their makers for over 30 years.

    Archives

    November 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018

    Categories

    All
    Aaron Cheasbrough
    Abraham Fromanteel
    Ahaseurus Fromanteel
    Andrew Prime
    Antique Clocks
    Arched Dial Clocks
    Astrological Signs
    Astronomical Clocks
    Augustus Pugin
    Ben Harris
    Benjamin Harriss
    Benjamin Hill
    Benjamin Louis Vulliamy
    Big Ben
    Blacksmiths' Company
    Charles Murray
    Charles Murry
    Christopher Gould
    Chronometers
    Clockmaker
    Clockmakers' Company
    Court Of Assistants
    Daniel Quare
    Deodatus Threlkeld
    Descendant Of A Clockmaker
    Descendent Of A Watchmaker
    Early Clockmakers
    Early Watchmakers
    Edmond Beckett Denison
    Edmund Beckett Denison
    Edmund Lewis
    Edward Brooks
    Edward J Dent
    Edward John Dent
    Freedom By Patrimony
    Freedom By Redemption
    George Graham
    Great Clockmakers
    Henry Child
    Henry Maysmore Junior
    How To Date An Antique Clock
    Humphrey Maysmore
    Humphrey Osborne
    Isaac Pearson
    James Clowes
    James Gibson
    James Hatton Junior
    James McCabe
    James Moore French
    James Wilson
    Jasper Harris
    Job Betts
    John Berry
    John Clowes
    John Drake
    John Dyde
    John Gammon
    John Gray
    John Greaves
    John Hardinge
    John Harris
    John Harvie
    John Higginson
    John Layton
    John Liddell
    John Mason
    John Nelson
    John Roger Arnold
    John Squire
    John Threadgill
    John Walker
    John Warfeild
    John Washinton
    John Williamson
    Joseph Audley
    Joseph Hind
    Joseph Knibb
    Joseph Mickellny
    Joseph Williamson
    Joseph Windmills
    Lady Watchmaker
    London Apprenticeship
    Long Case Clocks
    Martin Jackson
    Mathew Jonah Charlton
    Measure Time At Sea
    Musical Clocks
    Nathanial Hodges
    Nathaniel Barrow
    Nathaniel Higginson
    Newcastle Clockmakers
    Nicholas Higginson
    North East Clock
    Philip Corderoy
    Ralph Beilby
    Ralph Threlkeld
    Researching A Family Tree
    Richard Clement
    Richard Craile
    Richard Davis
    Richard Rippon
    Richard Washington
    Robert Grinkin
    Robert Harvie
    Robert Hooke
    Robert Kerby
    Robert Simms
    Royal Clock At Newton Hall
    Royal Clocks
    Samuel Burgess
    Samuel Ogden
    Samuel Watson
    Serving An Apprenticeship
    Solomon Bouquet
    Sophia Metcalfe
    The Plague
    Thomas Bewick
    Thomas Chapman
    Thomas Dyde
    Thomas Gardener
    Thomas Grimes
    Thomas Johnson
    Thomas Kimberley
    Thomas Tompion
    Thomas White
    Tracing My Ancestor
    Trade Guilds
    Turret Clock
    Watchmakers
    Watchmaker's Apprenticeship
    Westminster Clock
    William Baldwin
    William Baldwyn
    William Clarke
    William Clement
    William Dobson
    William Gill
    William Graham
    William Grimes
    William Henry Hinckley
    William Kipling
    William Moraley
    William Prevost
    William Smith
    William Threlkeld
    William Wightman

    RSS Feed

Pendulum Publications

Felton,
Northumberland,
​England
CONTACT US

info@pendulumpublications.com

​+44 (0) 1670 783905
  • Home
  • Books
    • Early clock and watchmakers of the Blacksmiths' Company
    • Clockmakers of Northumberland and Durham
    • The Turret Clocks of T.Cooke & Sons of York
    • North Country Clockmakers
  • Articles
    • Was Tompion a member of the BC?
    • The Rothbury Sundials
    • Was Fromanteel the mystery maker?
    • Deodatus Threlkeld
    • Abraham Fromanteel
    • Thomas Hampson
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Purchase our Books about early clock and watchmakers
    • Testimonials
    • Photo Gallery
    • Contact
  • SEASONAL PROMOTIONS
    • FREE DELIVERY - Early Clockmakers of the Blacksmiths' Company
    • Gifts for FAMILY & friends
    • SEASONAL PROMO: Buy this set of specialist clock books
  • BLOG
    • Latest post
    • All BLOG posts