John Briant Bell-Founder and Clockmaker 1749-1829 by Herbert C
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John Briant Bell-Founder and Clockmaker 1749-1829 by Herbert C. Andrews The Entire Book This document is provided for you by The Whiting Society of Ringers visit www.whitingsociety.org.uk for the full range of publications and articles about bells and change ringing a .,trtforbsbirt Wortbp JOHN BRIANT BELL-FOUNDER and CLOCKMAKER 1749 - 1829 A Biography & l~ist of His Bells & Clocks by HERBERT C. ANDREWS, M.A. Ho11. Secretary of the East Herls Archaeolotical Society. 1930 Prl11ted for the East H erts A rchaeo/0J1iet1J Society by WILLIAM CARTMEL & SONS ST. ALBANS PRIN1'ED BY Wm. CARTMEL ANO SOt.;S, ST. ALBANS . ~ g.~- :.- - >: :::. "~ /, : ~ f .:... ~ - " r. i. "i z ;; -< _, ~ •J :.: 'l~ /. ,,,.. :=.. -. ;.::" ...: - ~ ~ 3 :. ~ ;: ;.:: :... J . - ...; - = :t " ::; ~ ~ 1- "" .../, .,, .;;, ;::: ~ -<: ~ - i. ~ :.. °J. :.:::'· '·r. ~. :.. 0, .... r. ;: - :::,... CONTENTS. PART I. BRIANT's LIFE AND WoRK ... p. 1 .. II. BELL STAMPS AND INSCRIPTIONS .•• p . 15 .. III. STAFF AND ASSISTANTS ••• p . 21 .. IV• CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF BELLS ... p. 25 .. v. CoUNTY LISTS OF BEUS p. 31 BEDFORDSHIRE p. 32 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE p. 33 CAMBRIDGESHIRE p. 37 DEVONSHIRE p. 38 ESSEX p. 39 HERTFORDSHIRE p. 44 KENT p. 56 LEICESTERSHIRE p. 56 LINCOLNSHIRE p. 60 LoNDON p. 62 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE p. 63 OXFORDSHIRE p. 68 SHROPSHIRE p. 72 STAFFORDSHIRE p. 76 SUFFOLK ... p. 76 WARWICKSHIRE p. 77 WORCESTERSHIRE ••• p. 81 IRELAND ... p. 81 .. VI. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF TURRET CLOCKS ... p. 83 .. VII. LoNG CASE CLOCKS ... p. 89 .. VIII. CENTENARY CELEBRATION •.. p ..91 ILLUSTRATIONS. I. PARLIAMENT Row, HERTFORD IN 1928... Frontispiece 2. JAMES CECIL, lST MARQUIS OF SALISBURY ... p. 2 3. GEORGE JOHN, 2ND EARL SPENCER, HIGH STEWARD OF ST. ALBANS • .. p. 10 4. JOHN BRIANT's GRAVE IN ALL SAINTS' CHURCHYARD, HERTFORD, RESTORED, 1929 ... .. p. 12 5. STAMPS USED BY jOHN BRIANT ON HIS BELLS ... ... p. 16 6. BISHOP'S STORTFORD CHURCH BELLS, TAKEN DOWN FOR RE- TUNING, 1928 ••• p. 45 7. No. 2 BELL, HoRBLING CHURCH, LINCOLNSHIRE. Bv J. BRIANT AND J. CABOURN .. • .. • p. 61 8. LONG CASE CLOCK BY JOHN BRIANT, BELONGING TO SIR GEOFFREY CHURCH • .. p. 89 9. LONG CASE CLOCK BY jOHN BRIANT, BELONGING TO MR. EDMUND FLETCHER ••• p. 90 10. TABLET ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF jOHN BRIANT, IN ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, HERTFORD, BY THE EAST HERTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SocIETY, FEBRUARY, 1929. p. 92 11. THE MARLBOROUGH ALMSHOUSES, ST, ALBANS ... p. 14 Dedicated to the memory of my father ROBERT THORNTON ANDREWS one of the founders of the East Herts A rchaeofogical Society, who passed to his rest on June 24th, 1928, in his 90th year; haviiig inspired me- wit/a his own love of Hertfordshire and its people. H.C.A. May, 1930. PART I. BRIANT'S LIFE AND WORK. The position which the British nation holds in the world to-day is due, not only to the few great men whose names arc enshrined in the Dictionary of National Biography, and whose memory is perpetuated by public statues and elaborate monuments, but also to the many in humbler stations of life who, taking honesty and strict integrity as their aim in life, have been content to give of their best in their quiet way and ask for no other recognition than the final "Well done, good and faithful servant." Many of these, craftsmen of no mean skill, lived but to praise God by executing to their utmost powers whatever their hands found to do. Of such was John Briant, bell founder and turret clock maker of Hertford. The chief sources of our information about John Briant, apart from the account of him which North and Stahlschmidt give in their Church Bd/.s of Hertfordshire, are an article by Mr. L. H. Chambers in the Transactions of the East Herts Archaeological Society (vol. vii., pp. 109-116), and his obituary notice which was published in the columns of the Hertfordshire M ercitry of March 7th, 1829. It is generally stated that he was born at Exning in Suffolk, a small village near Newmarket 1 in 1749: although the registers there do not appear to contain any record of his baptism. The obituary notice describes him as a son of a respect able foreigner. Whether his parents came from beyond the seas or, as is more likely, only from some other town in England, and so were locally looked upon as "furiners," is uncertain. This may account for the absence of his baptismal entry : his parents may have preferred that his baptism should take place at his birthplace. The earliest Briant entry in the Exning registers is dated 1808: but at St. Mary's Church, New market, Briant entries occur in 1708, 1753 and 1754, though none of these can be definitely connected with the bell-founder.2 At Exning Church a Thomas Bryant was Churchwarden from 1803 to 1835, and his name and office figure on the clockbell in that tower, recast in 1831. It was the intention of John's father that he should be educated with a view to entering the Church. He was accordingly sent, in the first place, to a classical and mathematical school at Newmarket, prepar atory to a University course at Oxford or Cambridge, presumably the 1 Exning, the " Old Market." lies two miles north west of Newmarket. 2 E. H. A. S. Transactions, VII., 114. B 2 JORN BRIANT- latter, that being the nearer. But the boy's tastes ran more to mechanics than classics, and he evidently showed such aptitude in the former (and, it may be, the reverse in the latter) that his parents seem very wisely to have allowed him to follow his natural bent at the bench of a whitesmith's shop. Clock and chime making especially engaged his attention and he speedily progressed beyond the vice and anvil. It was a natural step that he added bell-founding to the course which he had mapped out for himself. He was, we are told, " in every sense of the word, a self-taught mechanic and became a proficient in each of the sciences in which he had embarked." But until he was over thirty years of age, we know nothing about his life after leaving sch,.ool. No doubt he served an apprenticeship to some bell-founder of good standing, and perhaps continued in his service after the expiration of his articles. The fact that Briant, in 1820, while casting No. 5 bell for Chacombe Church, Northants, had the tombstone at Banbury of the bell-founder, Henry Bagley, who died 1684, repaired and re-cut (see p. 69) may afford a clue. During the period of Briant's early manhood, say from 1765 to 1780, the Bagley family which had removed from Banbury to Chacombe was still casting bells at the latter place. Matthew Bagley, the last of the family in this line, died in 1785. Another likely foundry at this period was that at St. Neots, where Joseph Eayres, of the Kettering family of bell-founders and clock-makers, was casting bells as early as 1731 until his death in 1771. His foreman, Thomas Osborn, and his cousin, Edward Arnold, continued it in partner ship for a short time, and then Arnold carried it on alone till 1783 and Osborn set up at Downham Market. To any of these Briant may well have served his apprenticeship. It has also been suggested that he may have had early association with the family of R. Harman, the High Wycombe chime-maker. Briant was fortunate in early gaining noble patronage. If the obituary notice speaks correctly, it was under the auspices of James Cecil, sixth Earl of Salisbury 3 that he came to live in Hertford, and set up his bell-foundry in Parliament Row, on the site now occupied by the premises of Messrs. Simson, booksellers and stationers. This cannot have been later than the year 1780, when Briant was thirty-one years of age, for the Earl died in that year. Thenceforward Briant's chief patron was the Earl's son, James Cecil, first Marquis of Salisbury (b. 1748, d. 1823). By 1781, Briant's reputation must have been fairly established for both bell-founding and turret clock making. He commenced with a treble bell at Pirton Church, and No. 5 at Great Thurlow, Suffolk, in 1781: and Nos. 2-5 at Codicote, and the peal of eight at St. Andrew's, Hertford, in 1782: as well as the repair of the clock in the central turret 3 The obituary notice calls him nroncously Marquis of Salisbury. 2 l">LA rn 2 _L\)11-:S < EC 11., FI 1,,.;T )I.\ i<QI ·1,.; ! •l' S .\ 1.1,.;m . !{ \' 117l.1-!82:Ji. t- ~ltu a l1ai111 i11i:.;. h~· :-i.1k \\ 11 .1.1 ..'I. '\1 lb 1 • IU· 'II ~ 1..; __..\ ·t at tl~U i d1I Hc1u c·. 11~' pt·1111h 1"t.:.t -d h~ l...rnt1 ~~11111 ....... l••fl of 1h~ ~I :ir-q,,i:; 11f Sah41ury. l LIFE AND WORK. 3 at Hatfield House in the latter year. Thereafter a steady stream of bells and clocks issued from his foundry and workshop to the number of over 420 bells in forty-five years. How many turret clocks he made there is no means of telling. So far I have heard of about thirty: but, as these were frequently made for private and not ecclesiastical ownership, there are no records, such as exist of his bells, to assist in compiling a complete list. It can only be done by a patient following up of occasional clues. Of his grandfather clocks three have come to my notice, and are enough to show that he turned his attention to this branch of horology also.