HERTFORD’S 18th CENTURY CLOCKMAKERS

In order to trade within the Borough of Hertford it was necessary to be a Freeman of the Borough. There were two ways of achieving this: by Servitude or Redemption. An apprentice was bound within the Borough, usually at age 14 and for seven years, to a Master, himself a Freeman. At the end of the apprenticeship, providing that his skills were considered adequate, his Master could obtain a Freedom by Servitude for him from the Corporation, the apprentice having “served” his master for the required time. If a skilled man moved from another district where he was a Freeman by Servitude, he would have to purchase a Freedom by Redemption in the Borough of Hertford.

Some 20 clockmakers traded in Hertford during the 18th century. Very often all we know about such people are their names. In the case of Hertford’s clockmakers, however, there are 11 men for whom we have a little more documentation. These men and the details we have about them, are set out in this article. The number of Hertford clockmakers whose work survives locally is very small.

John Walthall

Born in 1670, John Walthall makes his appearance in the Borough in 1718. He was a Freeman by Redemption, and is named in the Bengeo Land Tax Returns for 1721-23 and in the Window Tax for 1714-19. He was probably very skilled, having been apprenticed to William Coward from 1684-91. Coward had in his turn been apprenticed in 1658 to John, son of the famous Ahasuerus Fromanteel, the first maker of Huygen’s pendulum clocks. Walthall was from London and Bishop’s Hatfield.

Jonas Thurgood

The first local mention of Jonas Thurgood is at All Saints’ Church, when he was allowed 40/- to put and keep the chimes in order in 1718. The next year at St Andrew’s he was paid £3.13s for “mending the clock in the parish church in the year 1718.” Jonas was buried at All Saints’ on 4 July 1753 aged 76. The entry in the burial register states that he was “heretofor of Brickendon Green and late of the town of Hertford”. One or two of the clocks attributed to him carry the inscription: “near Hertford”.

There is, however, an entry in the Allen Index of Marriages for a Jonas Thorowgood of Tottenham marrying Sarah Curbey or Kirby of Hertford St John, at Wormley on 31 January 1725. The burial register of All Saints’ records the wife of Jonas Thoroughgood being buried on 4 February 1732, followed by his child two days later.

John Marie

John Marie was another clockmaker who had been apprenticed elsewhere, coming to Hertford in 1728 and obtaining his Freedom by Redemption. He took three apprentices that we know of: Thomas Wood of Cheshunt in 1733, Thomas Piggott of Tewin in 1739 (probably a relative of diarist John Carrington’s wife), and George Saward in 1748. In 1733 John Marie was also serving on the All Saints’ Vestry. He received 5s in 1736 from Mayor Harrison Green for mending the town clock; £1.1s in 1742 for looking after the clock for Mayor Bostock Toller; and again in 1743 for Mayor Jeremiah Hammond. John Marie’s local surviving timepieces are both at Hertford Museum – a long-case clock c.1740 purchased in 1945 from Mr Mason of the Globe Inn, Bengeo for £15; and “a verge watch, paircase inner of Pinchbeck & outer of Shagreen” (Stevens & Aked 1974) also c.1740, provenance unknown. This watch is now on display at Hertford Museum under “Everyday Things”.

The Toller Family

Bostock Toller, Mayor of Hertford in 1742, was also Clerk of the Peace for the County of Hertford. The extended Toller family included two clockmakers. The first one was also called Bostock. He was the son of Richard Toller of St Botolph, Aldgate, and was apprenticed first in 1742 to Richard Conyers, son of the notable mathematical instrument maker, and then to William Ericke. The second one was Thomas Toller, an older brother or cousin from the Hertford branch, who was apprenticed to John Nemes in 1734 and “Freed” in 1741. He was Mayor of Hertford in 1764.

In the late 1750s Bostock Toller, the former Mayor, purchased all the land on the south side of Fore Street between Rooke’s Alley and the old London Road, now the site of Marks & Spencer and the Gascoyne Way/London Road roundabout. On the west side of this plot of land, Bostock built a house. He died in 1761. Some six years later the Court of Quarter Sessions decided to replace the old Elizabethan Sessions House in Market Place with a new Shire Hall. Since the existing site was very congested, they tried to find an alternative site elsewhere in the town, and they considered the land owned by the Tollers would be ideal for this purpose. However, Mrs Toller and her two sons were only willing to sell part of the land. Thus the new Shire Hall had to be built in Market Place after all. Mrs Toller died in 1768 and in 1772 the whole site was sold to Benjamin Rooke (HM 26.8.1938).

Thomas Wood

Thomas Wood was John Marie’s apprentice and must have settled in Hertford since he was a Freeman by Servitude. He married a woman named Hannah and had at least one child, who was baptised at All Saints’ in 1754. In 1757 he was paid 10/6d by Mayor John Kirby and in 1759 by Mayor Thomas Coulson, 10/6d being for half a year’s care of the town clock. A William Wood was paid 5/3d for a quarter’s care of the town clock by Mayor John Bebb in 1764. However, this entry may in fact refer to Thomas Wood, the name “William” being just a slip of the clerk’s pen.

James Upjohn

We rarely know where exactly the Hertford clockmakers lived. However, an advertisement in an unrecorded newspaper states that: “James Upjohn, clock & watchmaker at the Dial & Crown in Hertford, from London [most probably from Threadneedle Street] makes & sells all sorts of gold & silver watches wholesale & retail at the lowest price. NB. plate bought & sold.” (HM 13.3.1937). A long-case clock made by John Upjohn sometime between 1740-50 has survived.¹

John Merey

John Merey was trading at Market Place in 1755. He may have been formerly apprenticed in 1744 to John Dobson of Christ’s Hospital, Newgate Street, and may also be a predecessor of the Simson business (see below).

Lewis Ferron

Lewis Ferron arrived in Hertford in 1758 and acquired a Freedom by Redemption, having been apprenticed to Joshua Willson of St Anne’s, Westminster in 1720. Nothing is known of his early career. His brother Abraham of St Anne’s churchyard, also a clockmaker, had been apprenticed to the famous Stephen Gujon in 1725. John Ferron, a member of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1692, was probably their father.

Lewis is recorded as the maker of a long-case marquetry clock c.1720 (though that must have been his father) and a watch of 1750. He did, of course, play his part in maintaining that ailing attention-demander, the town clock. In 1763 he inserted a new pendulum spring at a cost of 1/6d from Mayor Richard Cutler. In 1771 he was paid £2.7s for having taken care of the town clock over a period of 2¼ years, again by Mayor Richard Cutler. He was paid for similar services the following year, by which time the clock must have been hanging on the corner of 1 Market Place, exhausted by all the demolition and building dust as the little old Sessions House gave way to the mighty Shire Hall. Lewis was also engaged in the upkeep of the All Saints’ clock. In 1768 he was paid 40s per year to “look after the clock & wind up the same & keep it going in such a manner as clockes are taken care of.” In 1771 he contributed 2/6d towards the re-casting of two treble bells and a Saint’s (Sanctus) bell into two new trebles at All Saints’.

The entry for Lewis’ Land Tax payment in 1772, indicates that he may have been living in Maidenhead Street. He died in 1774 and was buried in All Saints’ Churchyard.

William Wyberd

William Wyberd, maker of a blue lacquer clock c.1770, married Elizabeth Sams at All Saints’ Church on 8 March 1771. According to the Land Tax Returns, he was living in Back Street (now Railway Street) in 1778 and his house was formerly occupied by the Packer family. By this time he had an assistant, Ben Cooper, who was apprenticed to John Grindon of St Albans in 1750. His father was a plumber in Hackney. In 1778 Ben wrote to John Radcliffe of Hitchin Priory and Grosvenor Square, begging £5 for a set of clockmaker’s tools and stating that he was a “poor St Albans Blue”. This was a reference to the Society of True Blues, an 18th century Conservative Club held at The Crow, St Albans, which helped support the impecunious. A pencil note on the letter reads: “Cooper in all”, which probably indicates payment.

Thomas Simson

Thomas Simson was established as a clockmaker at 3-4 Market Place from 1772. The business later came to include printing and stationery, and flourished in the same premises until 1920. The premises were owned by the Dimsdales during the 18th century and purchased by Earl Cowper in 1801. Prior to Thomas Simson’s occupation, they had served as an inn, the King’s or Queen’s Arms. After 1920 they were occupied by McFarlane’s and Botsford’s, though the Botsford’s side had to be demolished in 1940 following a serious fire.

Thomas was possibly apprenticed to Charles House in the City of London in 1764. He came from a long-standing Hertford family who lived elsewhere in Market Place, and was perhaps influenced in his career choice by his neighbour, John Merey. In returning to Hertford, he would have been obliged to obtain a Freedom by Redemption, but no record of this has been found. Thomas was Mayor in 1801 and 1814, and when he died in 1836 at the age of 87, The Reformer declared him to have been “the father of the old Corporation of the Borough” (as distinct from the “new” Corporation reconstituted under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835). He was buried at All Saints’ where he had worshipped and held the office of churchwarden.

Thomas worked on long-case clocks of which there are at least two in the town, dated c.1780. There is also a table clock dated 1830 in the Hertford Museum, whose manufacture he may have supervised.

John Briant

John Briant was primarily a bellfounder. He created the majority of his clocks in the first quarter of the 19th century with the help of James Skerman and later his son William. He arrived from Hatfield in 1778-79, probably under the patronage of Lord Salisbury, and lived in Parliament Row. His father, also John, moved with him to Hertford. He too was a clockmaker and had formerly made long-case clocks at Hatfield. He spelled his name “Bryant”, and it is now conjectured that perhaps clocks inscribed Bryant may be his and those inscribed Briant his son’s. John Briant’s father died in 1785 and was buried at All Saints’.

One of John Briant’s first recorded works was undertaken in 1780 when Mayor Mr Greenell requested him to repair the Mace and the Sword, “cleaning and polishing the blade and repairing the case and making four new loopols [loopholes] for 7/6d.” This surely proves that he was in a position of trust. He went on to achieve much fame and acclaim as bellfounder, ironfounder and clockmaker. Hertford Museum has a long-case clock by Bryant, a gift from Donald Roberts in 1986. The clock face is by Wilson & Osborne of Birmingham c.1780 and the face was repainted in 1840. It now stands on the landing of the second floor.

The careers of Thomas Simson and John Briant extended well into the 19th century, so both of them will be revisited in a subsequent article.

As a footnote to my article in the 2009 Journal about the clockmaker Humphrey Clarke, I mentioned that he was active in Hertford in the last half of the 17th century and endured until at least 1713. Another name which crops up during the period is J. Lee. He appears in the Corporation’s Months’ Court and the Mayor’s Accounts in 1681 and 1694, being paid for work on the town clock. So too does Thomas Crowch in 1651 and S. Crowch in 1699. J. Lee also cared for the clock at St Andrew’s church in 1716. So we have some evidence that Humphrey Clarke was not alone in his trade at that time.

To conclude, Hertford Museum has a very curious clock which dates from the end of the 18th century. An Act of Parliament of 1797 imposed a tax of 5s per year upon clock and watch owners. This nearly ruined clockmakers and the Act was hastily repealed in 1798. Tavern keepers had for years invested in cheap simple clocks, which had a large wooden face and minimal works. Such clocks gained in popularity following the 1797 Act. They were called “Parliamentary Clocks” and one such was found at the Old Coffee House Inn in Maidenhead Street. It was presented to Hertford Museum by Burtons who built their men’s outfitters on the site in 1937. We don’t know who made this clock, but it’s interesting to note that John Briant’s bell foundry was only a stone’s throw away.

Notes:

¹ Many London clockmakers advertised with a signboard showing a dial; for example, Thomas Tompion’s sign in Fleet Street was a Dial & Three Crowns.

Sources of Reference

Printed:

Atkins, C.E. 1931 Register of Apprentices of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers 1631-1931 London

Atkins, C.E. 1984 Freemen of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers 1631-1984 London

Atkins, S.E. & Overall, W.H. 1881 Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers London

Baillie, G.H., revised by Clutton, C. 1982 Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World London

Britten, F.J. & others 1982 Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers London

Dodds, J. 2003 Hertfordshire Bellfounders University of Hertfordshire

Loomes, B. 1981 Early Clockmakers of Great Britain London

Loomes, B. 2006 Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World London

Moore, D. 2003 British Clockmakers and Watchmakers Apprentice Records 1710-1810 London

Stevens, J.C. & Aked, C.K. 1974 Horology in Provincial & Rural Museums London

White, G. 1998 The Clockmakers of London London

Manuscript Collections:

Buckley, F. & G.B. 18th century national and local newspapers

Andrews, W.F., R.T. & H.C., Collected Notes, Hertford Museum

Newspapers:

Hertfordshire Mercury (HM)

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance given to her by Mr David Kingstone in compiling this article.