22 Old-Time New England Ebenezerclifford, Architect and Inventor

22 Old-Time New England EbenezerClifford, Architect and Inventor JAMESL. GARVIN N October 29, 1746’ a child was underwent extensive restoration during born in the small town of Ken- installation in the museum, its basic 0 sington, New Hampshire, who elements presumably were not altered. was to become celebrated for his diverse The ceiling is without precedent in the talents even in an age and a locale noted seacoast region of New Hampshire. Its for unschooled inventiveness. Ebenezer most striking aspect is the peculiar triple Clifford, Esq., joiner, cabinetmaker, arrangement of the stiles and rails that architect, justice of the peace, legislator, hold the large panels. submarine explorer, and mill operator, is In 1781 a house similar to the Shaw still remembered in his native area as an House was built by “Squire” Lovering of “extraordinary genius.” Beginning life as Kensington, again with finish work at- the offspring of a family of rural carpen- tributed, without proof, to Ebenezer ters, Clifford earned the respect of men in Clifford.3 This structure was moved to many professions.In the field of architec- Judd’s Bridge Farm in New Milford, ture, he left the impress of his fertile mind Connecticut in 1948.4 on a number of buildings, some of which At the same time that Ebenezer Clifford were fashioned by his own hand and to- was working as a joiner in Kensington, he day are key structures in New was also engaged in cabinetmaking. Ac- Hampshire’s architectural history. cording to Sawyer’s History of Kensington, Clifford’s earliest work as a joiner, to the Clifford was noted as a clockcase maker extent that it can be traced, is of special (the movements were made by another interest for its originality. Around 1774 or man).5 This reference is confirmed by a earlier,* Moses Shaw, Jr. of Kensington bill of 1788, in which Clifford charged constructed a new home on Stumpfield Samuel Marston of Hampton for the Road in that town. The house, destroyed following: in the 192Os,was apparently a two-story, july 1788for a ClockCase central chimney structure of the type that Cherrytree @ 541 is common in New England. What made glassand hingesfor do. @ 3-4-lo6 this house extraordinary, and perhaps One tall clock with a case supposedly unique, was the interior finish, tradi- made by Clifford was illustrated in An- tionally attributed to Ebenezer Clifford. tiques magazine in July, 1948 and is now One of the second-floor chambers of the privately owned in Kensington. Shaw House was panelled on all four Clifford made other furniture in these walls, unusual at this date. Far more early years as well. In November 1781 he distinctive, however, was another cham- charged Jonathan Greely III of Kingston ber, which was panelled not only on all for several types of furniture: four walls, but on the low ceiling as well. This exceptional room was purchased by To a Mahogany Stand Table f: 2-14-O To 6 Delf I?] Chairs painted 5-8 -0 the Metropolitan Museum of New York, To an 18 inch Mahogany and is today displayed in the American Teaboard o-9 -0 Wing. Although this chamber reportedly To one 12inch Do. O-6 -0’ 23 24 Old-Time New England Clifford’s purchase of some 1600 board became a resident of Exeter.12 feet of cherry, 900 feet of maple, and 900 Exeter in 1793 was a town with a feet of birch joist from a farmer in Candia, population of only about 1700, but in this New Hampshire in 1788 and 1789 implies small population was a disproportionate a fairly extensive use of these cabinet- amount of talent and enterprise. In 1783 maker’s woods.8 John Phillips of Andover, Massachusetts As early as 1777, when he was thirty- had established the famed Phillips Exeter one years old and had recently returned Academy. Exeter was the home of Ben- from military service in Medford, Mas- jamin Clark Gilman, silversmith, mathe- sachusetts, Clifford and his apprentice matical instrument maker, clockmaker, apparently built a staircase for Stephen engraver, and aqueduct engineer.13 Since Batchelder, a farmer of Deerfield, New 1785, Bradbury Johnson, who was soon to Hampshire: become associated with Clifford in the To 7 Days work of myself design of several striking buildings, had at 41 as money [was1 worked as a joiner and lived at the corner in 1774 1 -8-O of Court (now Front) and Spring Streets. To 14 Do. of my servt. at 316 as Do. 2 -9-o The town could boast its own poet, To turning 31 balusters (a 1 Thomas Odiorne-“an American pre- as Do. l-11-09 decessor of Wordsworth.“t4 Exeter had Thus, Clifford gained diverse experience had a gunpowder mill since 1777 and a as joiner, cabinetmaker, and turner early duck (sailcloth) manufactory since 1790. in his career. A description of the village in 1795, By about 1790 Clifford seems to have written by the learned Dr. Samuel Ten- felt that his talents and interests de- ney, states that the dams over the falls manded a wider field. He naturally turned near Clifford’s newly bought house “af- to the adjacent town of Exeter. In 1788 forded seats for four double geared corn- Brigadier General Peter Gilman, former mills, four sawmills, two oil-mills and one Speaker of the New Hampshire House of fulling mill,” some of which then be- Representatives, had died in Exeter with- longed to Clifford.1s out male issue. His house, a wooden But Clifford was engaged in activities garrison dating from about 1700, then other than the operation of his mills. He passedto the heirs of his daughter Abigail had come to regard himself as a man of (Fig. 1) .I0 The house boastedan extensive some learning and had begun to acquire a front wing, probably added by Peter select library. Moreover, he had found Gilman in 1772 or 1773 when he was a like-minded companions in Exeter. In councillor of the province.” Well-pan- 1797 Samuel Tenney, Oliver Peabody, elled, well-lighted, and spacious,this wing Benjamin Abbot, Gideon Lamson and could easily have served its reputed occa- Ebenezer Clifford petitioned the state sional use as the governor’s council cham- legislature for incorporation as “Proprie- ber. A second desirable feature of the tors of the Social Library in Exeter,” Gilman House was “the Saw and having “expended considerable sums in Gristmills and privileges belonging there- the purchase of Books for their use in to” lying directly across the road and Company.“r6 The nature of Clifford’s included with the “Mansion.” In April of personal library is suggested by a book 1793 Clifford purchased the old garrison now in the Phillips Exeter Academy from Abigail Gilman Odlin’s heirs and Library: James Paine’s Plans, Elevations, Ebenezer Clifford, Architect and Inventor 25 and Sections, of Noblemen and Gentlemens will be necessary to compleat the Court Houses.. (London, 1765). This folio vol- House.” This committee reported that ume is part one of a two-volume series, “from the representation of the Honl. the second half of which appeared in Committee for building said House & 1783. The book bears an unusually large Ebenezer Clijyord Esqr. [italics added] bookplate identifying its owner as Three hundred pound more will be neces- Ebenezer Clifford of Kensington-clear sary to compleat said building.. .“19 The proof that Clifford’s mind had developed fact that Clifford was consulted suggests an inquiring bent before his removal to that he may have been employed either to Exeter. build or design the courthouse. Unfor- Helen Park, in her article “A List of tunately, the County Treasurer’s records Architectural Books Available in America for 1791 give no account for the construc- before the Revolution,” does not list tion of the building. James Paine’s first volume as having been Not much is known about the Exeter known in America before the war.17 Courthouse. The only pictorial represen- Having no details of mantelpieces, doors, tation of the building seems to be the and windows, construction features or the miniature drawing on Phinehas Merrill’s five orders, Paine’s book contains little of 1802 map of Exeter. Beyond this, there is direct use to American builders. Most of a brief description written by the ubiq- the houses depicted were far too large for uitous William Bentley in 1801: emulation in America-so much so that it The Court is a small but neat Building is surprising to find the volume in a of two Stories not far from the mill seats & Bridge. It suffers from a narrow practical New Englander’s library at any pediment which does not afford a proper time. Unless Clifford’s ownership of the piazza, which might well fill the front.20 book was a mere accident, its presence in Undoubtedly, Bentley’s standard of com- his library suggests a more extensive parison was Samuel Mclntire’s Salem collection of architectural books, probably Courthouse, which had been illustrated in beginning with the serviceable builder’s the Massachusetts Magazine in March, guides common in America both before 1790 and was thereby perhaps known in and after the Revolution.t* Exeter as a prototype for this sort of build- Clifford’s reputation as a “student of ing.21 architecture” was probably due less to his Whether or not Clifford provided the private library than to his services as a plans for the 1791 courthouse, there is designer of buildings. There was not a documentary proof that he served as a major public or semi-public structure draftsman at least as early as 1794.

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