THOMAS STOCKTON A particularly interesting clock get lots of queries from correspondents of residence may not have been used and they are often of a very routine by Brian Loomes, UK precisely in the entries, which were not I nature. But now always jotted down and then something with great care. After particularly all, the parish clerk interesting crops up, knew well enough and the following which people he recounts one referred to and did such instance. An not think about American owner of some researcher a 30-hour longcase struggling to interpret clock contacted his records three me to ask if I could centuries later. If it analyse his clock was used precisely, and its age. It is it implies they signed by Thomas moved from Barnby Stockton of Ellerby, to Ellerby between a maker previously 1722 and 1724. undocumented. If used carelessly Various suggestions they maybe lived at had been made Elllerby all the time. about its age and Thomas’s burial has quality, mostly wildly not been found, but inaccurate. then parish registers The clock is known are seldom complete to have belonged and usually contain to the same family many errors and since it was first omissions. made, his family, I know from the Hansells, who personal experience farmed from at least how careless clerks the early eighteenth can be. I have seen century at Ellerby my name written as in Lythe parish near Zoomes, Goomes, in North York- Blooms, and Toomes shire. The Hansells and Doomes, and I were tenants of the have been driven to Marquis of Norman- stating my location dy, and lived at Nine- falsely as Pateley teen Lands, a house Bridge, because then and now owned when correctly using by the Marquis. the adjacent village Nineteen Lands is of Bewerley as my about two miles from address, I found my Ellerby and about two miles from Lythe. Figure 1. The dial of the Thomas Stockton of mail was sent to Beverley about 70 miles Research had uncovered more than Ellerby, the part outside the chapter ring being from here. When they failed to locate me one Thomas Stockton there, but the a modern replacement. at Beverley and returned it ‘not known’, question was how old was the clock the postal authorities finally sent my and which Thomas Stockton made it. mail to Bewerley, or some of it anyway! The attribution of age to the clock was a farmer and there is no evidence that he And this in an age when most people made more complicated because it had made clocks. And I did find evidence that supposedly learn to read and write! suffered during its travels to and across Thomas junior made them later, after he On 27th November 1746 Thomas junior, America. But more of the clock later. moved from Ellerby. the clockmaker, was married at Lythe I finally established that the Thomas On 22nd May 1722 they had a son to Katherine Postgate, both of Lythe Stockton who made the clock was baptised at Lythe parish church named parish. On 18th September 1748 they baptised at the parish church of Lythe Isaac. The couple were described as had a son named Isaac baptised there. near Whitby in North on 18th being ‘of Barnby’ in 1719 and 1722, but It is not known what became of Isaac. May 1719, the son of another Thomas when Mary died in 1734 her husband On 7th March 1750/51 they had a son Stockton and his wife, Mary, nee Mary Thomas was still alive and described as named Francis baptised there. On both Allile, whom he had married there on 5th resident at Ellerby. Both were adjacent occasions they were described as of May 1718. Thomas Stockton senior was hamlets within Lythe parish and the place Ellerby.

clocksmagazine.com March 2017 9 Figure 2. The nameplate showing careless spacing of the lettering. Figure 3. The 30-hour movement is typical of the period but has rack striking.

Then Thomas and Katherine moved to Francis, Thomas’s son, followed his surround measuring 15in by 13in, and the Yarm and numerous clocks have been father’s clockmaking trade and married original spandrels set back into it. This noted by him signed at Yarm. This made at Yarm on the 19th May 1774 to Mary gives the clock an odd appearance, but sense as a clockmaker working at the Brown. They had a daughter named we need to concentrate on the original much larger town of Yarm had more Mary born in 1781 and a son, Isaac, born dial parts—that is the chapter ring and potential than one at Ellerby. There a in 1777 and buried the same year. He dial centre. daughter named Mary was baptised to married for a second time in 1819 as a The dial sheet centre has a matted them on 9th August 1761 (believed died a widower at York to Ann Catcheside, a ground, the matting done quite well spinster in 1817) and another daughter, widow. He was buried at Yarm on 11th though a bit irregularly and occasionally Elizabeth, on 9th April 1767. Trades were April 1829 aged 78. showing the tool marks—typically good seldom mentioned in these early parish My further researches indicate that work for a rural clockmaker but not registers but we know this was the same clockmaker George Stockton at nearby nearly so fine as on a London dial. The couple. Katherine was buried there on Stokesley and clockmaker Mark Stockton square date box is surrounded by naive July 29th 1785. at Whitby both appear not to be related to engraving, copying the style of London Then an odd thing happened. Banns the Ellerby/Yarm clockmaking family. clocks of a slightly earlier period but not were read at Yarm on 23rd April 1786 The clock itself is much altered. We can so finely. It seems from this that Thomas proposing the marriage of Thomas ignore the case for now and concentrate Stockton did this work himself. He is Stockton of Yarm to Susan Simpson initially on the dial. At some time the copying the London principle, not London of Acklam. But this marriage did not dial sheet must have been seriously quality, perhaps from clocks he has seen take place—we don’t know why. In damaged, but we can guess, from the in the locality. fact Thomas was married on 20th fact that the chapter ring has a diameter The dial centre has two multi-ringed August 1787 to Mary Reynolds, both of of 10in, that it was an 11in square dial. ‘winding holes’, as for an eight-day clock. Yarm, but married some miles away at This was more or less the standard size This was a fashion on London clocks of Osmotherley. Thomas himself was buried for a mid-eighteenth century 30-hour dial. 20 or 30 years earlier. But this is a one- at Yarm on 16th September 1794. He A previous owner had the dial sheet day pull-wind clock and does not need would have been 75. What happened to (that part outside the chapter ring) winding holes. This was done deliberately Mary is not known. replaced with a new outer dial sheet by some country clockmakers, especially

10 March 2017 clocksmagazine.com Figure 4. The movement from the left. Figure 5. The ‘Westmoreland’ calendar wheel seen from the back and showing its numerous repaired teeth. in northern , to give the clock a finely-engraved chapter ring. The style, wheel, as it was often used in that county, superficial appearance of an eight-day with quite large minute numerals, inner but it is found elsewhere in the North too. (which cost twice the price of a one-day quarter-hour divisions and half-hours It was easier and cheaper to make than clock), as well as to avoid the bare look marked by fleur-de-lys, suggests a date the 24-hour wheel type normally used on of a plain matted centre. of about 1750. The fact that the signature eight-day clocks. The number of repaired The clockmaker has put his nameplate is not on the chapter ring, where it would teeth illustrates the hard treatment this below XII, whereas at this period it usually be, also suggests that he bought disc has undergone in the past, probably would normally be signed on the chapter in the ring readily-engraved. from careless use. ring each side of 30. This was done The cast brass corner spandrels are The clock has rack-repeat striking, on purpose because it can add to the one version of many patterns that contain which enables the last hour the clock superficial appearance of an eight-day a cherub head. The clockmaker could struck to be repeated at will. If set up clock, which would normally have a not make these castings but bought them accurately this can mean that when circular seconds dial in this position from a brass-casting expert, as he would requested (that is, by pulling the repeater (below XII). The quality of the dial centre his (blank) dial sheet itself and all other cord) it strikes the nearest hour, striking and nameplate and its mis-spaced blank castings, such as clock movement the approaching hour after about 30 lettering suggest the work of a rural plates and wheels. These suggest to me minutes to, and the past hour till about maker doing his best, which is quite a date of about 1740. 30 minutes after. Many are set up to good, but not having the level of skill The movement cannot be precisely simply repeat the hour that last struck. of an expert engraver. The dial centre dated, but is consistent with a date of This system was known by London suggests a date of making about 1750. around 1740-50. clockmakers by about 1680-90, was The chapter ring is a different kettle of The offset calendar disc is a system increasingly used in table clocks from that fish, expertly engraved and far superior in used by some clockmakers in northern period onwards, but was seldom used in quality to the dial centre engraving, which England, as it avoided the need for longcase clocks in London or elsewhere means that the clockmaker probably making a calendar drive wheel, and till after the 1720s. bought that in from a specialist engraver. simply knocked on half a unit every 12 It is thought it was not liked by earlier A clockmaker could get by at dial centre hours from a pin or wedge on the hour clockmakers as abusive tugging at work but could not hope to produce a pipe. I call this a ‘Westmoreland’ calendar the repeater cord (as, for example, by

clocksmagazine.com March 2017 11 Figure 6. The replacement cherrywood Figure 7. Detail of the hood. The unusual size of the replacement dial sheet was presumably made to fit case now housing the clock was made the case aperture. in the 1860s.

children) can cause the whole strike Given these features of the clock and America they took with them ‘eighteen system to jam. It was also disliked the fact that we know Thomas Stockton boxes and trunks’ plus beds and bedding. by country clockmakers, who made moved from Ellerby to Yarm between Stowed somewhere amongst these was principally 30-hour clocks, like this one, 1751 and 1761, I would date the clock to the clock. Their ship, the Clio, landed in because it involved a spring, sometimes about 1750, give or take a year or two. Philadelphia and they then immediately two springs, which sooner or later will The clock is not in its original case, travelled down the Ohio River by flatboat fail. This is why most 30-hour clocks and—very unusually—it is known exactly with their possessions to Indiana, their have locking plate striking from their how that came about. The clock was ultimate destination. beginnings right into the mid nineteenth taken to America when an ancestor of the Thomas Hansell’s eldest son, John, century, as that requires no spring and present owner emigrated to Philadelphia moved house and family from Indiana of course cannot be repeated. This clock in 1819. This was Thomas Hansell, to the region of St Charles, Missouri, was made with repeating-work either whose family had lived at Nineteen Lands in 1847 taking the clock with him. Their at the special request of the purchaser for several generations previously. It is goods were shipped by steamboat (perhaps for repeating use by a cord thought that the clock was made there and canal on the Ohio river, then the at night in a bedroom) or because the for a Hansell ancestor, and it is also Mississippi river and the Missouri river. clockmaker was showing off his abilities believed the Hansells were related to the The movement was packed separately to make something out of the ordinary. Stocktons by marriage. The clock has from the case, which was transported The nicely-blued steel clock hands are always been handed down generation separately packed up like a packing case very finely made, of correct period styling, after generation to the eldest son. filled with bedding and linen. The case but are rather grand for this simple The original ship’s manifest shows was lost in transit, probably ending up country clock. It may be they are modern that when Thomas and his wife Ann, nee under water, but the movement arrived replacements. Collier, and their eight children sailed to safely, though perhaps damaged.

12 March 2017 clocksmagazine.com Figure 8. A 30-hour clock Figure 9. An eight-day clock by Thom- Figure 10. Dial of the eight-day clock with rolling moonwork. Clearly by this time by Thomas Stockton as Stockton of Yarm. Oak with ma- Stockton could make more sophisticated clocks when called upon. Photograph of Yarm in its original hogany trim. Photograph courtesy of courtesy of Burstow & Hewett Auctioneers, Battle, Sussex. oak case. Photograph Burstow & Hewett Auctioneers, Battle, courtesy of Bonhams Sussex. Auctioneers, London.

The owner at that time is said to have had a new case made about 1860, built in cherry wood from trees grown on the farm of his in-law, John Ewbank senior of Dearborn County, Indiana. This case does not reflect the style of the original case lost on the journey. What a story this clock represents, involving a journey half way across the world and reflecting the hazards of travel at that time! Very seldom do we come across a clock which still belongs to the family it was first made for. We can see how the family are rightly proud of their inheritance and the saga it reflects of the family’s history and journey.

Figure 11. Nineteen Lands Farm as it is today.

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