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Thomas Vance - Clocksmith
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The Edwards Family and Ashby ClocksMany
of the tall wood clocks made in Massachusetts in the late 1700s into the 1800s
came from Ashby. Research indicates
that Jonas Fitch (1704-1808) may have trained the first two Ashby makers,
Abraham Edwards (1761-1840) and his brother Calvin (1763-96). Prior
to making clocks, Abraham made pewter buttons.
After he took a clock apart, he became a clockmaker.
Abraham abandoned metalsmithing in 1794. The
brothers worked in partnership from about 1785 until Calvin's death in 1796.
The earliest clocks made by the brothers had sheet tin dials covered with
a gilt wash to give them the appearance of brass.
Before their 200th clock was produced, the style of their
dials changed and were made from wood plates that were painted white and are
decorated by hand, the style used for clocks from England for brass clocks of
the day. Clocks
made by the brothers that are numbered as high as 532 are in existence and they
may have made more prior to Calvin's death.
The movements of these Ashby style clocks may have been produced using
some mass-production techniques, however, research indicates that the movements
show they were made by hand-sawing and hand-finishing techniques. Abraham
continued making clocks until about 1820. His
son, John, worked in the shop for four to five years. Another son, Samuel, worked in Ashby and moved to Gorham,
Maine in about 1808 and worked there until his death in 1840. Two
Willard brothers, distant relatives of the famed Boston Willard family, worked
in Ashby after 1801. One brother,
Alexander Tarbell Willard, trained under Abraham. American
wooden works clocks were made from the 1790s until 1837. References: Two
Hundred Years of American Clocks & Watches by Chris Bailey The
Book of American Clocks by Brooks Palmer Cal
Morgan, Fellow NAWCC, Chairman, Research Committee, Maine Chapter 89, NAWCC, |