View source for Worshipful Company of Clockmakers

{{short description|Livery company of the City of London}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Notability|date=December 2024}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2024}}
{{Primary sources|date=December 2024}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox livery company
| name        = Worshipful Company of Clockmakers
| image       = Clockmakers Company Coat of Arms.jpg
| caption     = Arms of the Clockmakers' Company, granted in January 1672. Blazon: ''Sable, a Clock ye Four Pillars thereof Erected on Four Lyons, and on Each Capital a Globe with a Cross, and in the Middest an Imperiall Crowne all Or, and for their Crest upon an Helmet Proper Mantled Gules Doubled Argent and Wreath of their Colours a Spheare Or, the Armes Supported by the Figures of a [[Chronos|Naked Old Man Holding a Scithe]] and an Hour Glasse Representing Time, and of an Emperour in Roabes Crowned Holding a Scepter.''
| motto       = ''Tempus Rerum Imperator''
| location    = 1 Throgmorton Avenue, London EC2N 2BY
| formation   = {{start date|df=yes|1631}}
| association = Horology
| precedence  = 61st
| master      = Robert Woolgar Wren
| website     = {{URL|clockmakers.org}}
}}

The '''Worshipful Company of Clockmakers''' was established under a [[Royal Charter]] granted by [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] in 1631.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/royal-charters/list-of-charters-granted/|title = List of Charters Granted}}</ref> It ranks sixty-first among the [[livery companies]] of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the [[Privy Council]]. The company established a library and its [[Clockmakers' Museum|museum]] in 1813, which is the oldest specific collection of clocks and watches worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/clockmakers-museum|title = The Clockmakers' Museum}}</ref> This is administered by the company's affiliated charity, the Clockmakers' Charity,<ref>Charity No. 275380 registered with the UK Charity Commission</ref> and is presently housed on the second floor of London's [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum]]. The modern aims of the company and its museum are charitable and educational, in particular to promote and preserve clockmaking and watchmaking, which as of 2019 were added to the [[HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts]].

The [[Clockmakers' Museum]], comprising a collection of clocks, watches, portraits and ephemera is housed in a new gallery provided by the Science Museum, officially opened by [[Princess Anne]] on 22 October 2015. The museum was first established in 1813, and was housed at London's [[Guildhall, London|Guildhall]] from 1874 to 2014. It claims to be the oldest collection specifically of watches and clocks in the world. Though the collection is now housed in the Clockmakers' Museum in South Kensington, the company's archive and library are however still kept at [[Guildhall Library]]. The museum collection includes [[John Harrison|John Harrison's]] sea watch H5, once personally tested by [[King George III]].

==Motto==
The company's motto, ''Tempus Rerum Imperator'', can be translated as ‘Time, the Ruler of All Things’. It appears as an epitaph on the tombstone of former British Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]], a liveryman of the company.

==History==
Prior to the seventeenth century, clockmaking by native English craftsmen was mostly confined to the production of [[turret clocks]]. Domestic clocks and watches were mostly imported or the work of immigrants from the European continent. Because turret clock making involved working in ferrous metal, clockmakers within the City of London tended to be freemen of the [[Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths|Blacksmiths’ Company]], though some were members of other livery companies, notably the [[Worshipful Company of Clothworkers|Clothworkers]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=English Lantern Clocks|last=White|first=George|publisher=ACC|year=1989|pages=51–54}}</ref>

After the loss of many London clock and watchmakers in the plagues of 1598 and 1603, the trade consolidated and began to grow. The continued influx of newcomers led to resentment from those who had become established in London towards outsiders who came to set up in or near the City and who threatened their market. From 1620 onwards, groups of clockmakers attempted to set up their own guild. The Blacksmiths initially succeeded in opposing these moves. Eventually, however, with the king issuing charters as a means of raising much needed finance at a time when he had prorogued Parliament, the clockmakers succeeded in securing a royal charter, on 22 August 1631, to the distress of the Blacksmiths, who could naturally expect to lose members, and therefore income.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Clockmakers of London|last=White|first=George|publisher=WCC|year=2018|location=London|pages=14–19}}</ref>

The charter gave regulatory authority to the Clockmakers to control the horological trade in the City of London and for a radius of ten miles around. It incorporated a controlling body which should have ‘continuance for ever under the style and name of The Master, Wardens and Fellowship of the Art and Mystery of Clockmaking’. It provided that the fellowship should be governed by a master, three wardens and ten or more assistants who would form the Court. The first master was [[David Ramsay (watchmaker)|David Ramsay]], a Scot, who had been appointed watchmaker to [[James VI of Scotland]], later James I of England. The noted clockmaker [[Edward East (clockmaker)|Edward East]] also formed part of the first court.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers|last=Atkins|first=Samuel|year=1881|location=London|pages=8}}</ref>

The original charter is still in the company's possession and is housed with the rest of its library and archive in the Guildhall Library.<ref>See the catalogue of the London Metropolitan Archive, reference CLC/L/CD</ref> The company obtained a [[grant of arms]] from the [[College of Arms]] in January 1672. In 1766, the [[Court of Aldermen]] granted the company its livery. The number of liverymen was originally limited at sixty but has been increased in number over the years by approval of the [[City of London Corporation]] and currently stands at a maximum of three hundred.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.clockmakers.org/history-customs/freedom-and-livery/|title = The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers}}</ref>

==Horological Training and Awards for Excellence==
The company bestows three awards for excellence: the Tompion Medal for outstanding achievements in horology, the Harrison Medal for the propagation of horological knowledge and its appreciation, and the [[Derek Pratt (watchmaker)|Derek Pratt]] Prize for innovation, ingenuity, elegance, and the highest standards of workmanship and precision performance in the craft and science of time and timekeeping. The company also closely co-operates with the trustees of the [[George Daniels (watchmaker)|George Daniels]] Educational Trust in supporting education in horology.

==Affiliations==
The Clockmakers Company is formally affiliated with the Antiquarian Horological Society, the [[UCL Observatory]], [[HMS Protector (A173)|HMS ''Protector'']], the Royal Navy's Ice Patrol Ship,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.clockmakers.org/about/affiliations/|title=The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers}}</ref> [[HMS Archer|HMS ''Archer'']], a P264 Class University Royal Naval Unit based in Edinburgh, and [[No. 13 Squadron RAF|XIII Squadron RAF]].

==Masters==
[[File:Reverend Henry Leonard Nelthropp.jpg|thumb|The Reverend Henry Leonard Nelthropp MA FSA, Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of the City of London 1893 and 1894.]]
[[File:City of London, unusually arranged clock - geograph.org.uk - 559842.jpg|thumb|The [[Newgate|Newgate Street]] clock, the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' 375th anniversary gift to the City of London.]]
Those who have been Master of the company include the following:<ref>[http://www.clockmakers.org/about/the-court-committees-panels/masters-since-1631/ Masters since 1631], The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers website, accessed 06/02/2011</ref>
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
*1631, [[David Ramsay (watchmaker)|David Ramsay]]
*1636, [[Elias Allen]]
*1645, 1652 [[Edward East (clockmaker)|Edward East]]
*1699, Henry Thornton <ref>[https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/david-ramsay-and-the-first-clockmakers-l15056/lot.45.html Watch] sold by Sotheby's London with note about Thornton, 15 December 2015, Lot #45</ref>
*1700, [[Charles Gretton]]<ref>[Radage, Dennis, Meinen, Warner, and Radage, Laila. (2016). ''Charles Gretton: Clock & Watchmaking Through The Golden Age''. Vancouver, Canada: Three O'clock Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-9940460-0-0}}. https://www.grettonbook.com</ref>
*1702, [[Joseph Windmills]]
*1703, [[Thomas Tompion]]
*1708, [[Daniel Quare]]
*1717 Nathaniel Chamberlain 
*1718, [[Joseph Windmills|Thomas Windmills]]
*1795, 1812 Harry Potter <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pendulumofmayfair.co.uk/tag/clockmakers-company/|title = Clockmakers Company Archives| date=19 June 2012 }}</ref>
*1810, 1811 Paul Philipp Barraud
*1817, [[John Roger Arnold]]
*1821, 1823, 1825, 1827, 1847 [[Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy]]
*1855, 1862 [[Charles Frodsham]]
*1893, 1894 Revd. Henry Leonard Nelthropp
*1902, 1914 [[William Henry Mahoney Christie]] KCB FRS
*1922, 1931 Sir [[Frank Watson Dyson]] KBE FRS FRSE
*1926, [[Hugh Rotherham]]
*1932 Sir [[Francis Newbolt]] KC FCS<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.clockmakers.org/download/Masters|title=Worshipful Company of Clockmakers List of Masters|website=Worshipful Company of Clockmakers|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref>
*1946, [[Edward Iliffe, 1st Baron Iliffe|Lord Iliffe of Yattendon]] GBE
*1949, 1954 Sir [[Harold Spencer Jones]] KBE FRS FRSE PRAS
*1950, [[William Hamilton Shortt]] FBHI
*1959, [[Viscount Falmouth]]
*1960, [[Baron Harris|Lord Harris]]
*1969, Sir [[Richard van der Riet Woolley]] OBE FRS
*1974, Sir [[Frank Chalton Francis]] KCB
*1976, Sir [[Hugh Wontner]] GBE CVO
*1980, [[George Daniels (watchmaker)|George Daniels]] CBE DSc FBHI FSA AHCI
*1986, [[Viscount Falmouth]]
*1989, [[Lord Murton of Lindisfarne]] OBE TD PC
*2000, [[Alexander Boksenberg]] CBE FRS
*2001, Sir George White, Bt, FSA
*2002, Michael Monro Smith
*2003, Christopher John Hurrion
*2004, Philip John Willoughby
*2005, Diana Muriel Uff
*2006, [[David Pennefather|Maj Gen David Anthony Somerset Pennefather CB OBE]]
*2007, David John Poole MBE FBHI
*2008, Dr Michael David Sanderson PhD
*2009, Cdr Peter John Linstead-Smith OBE RN
*2010, Howard Carl Newman FBHI
*2011, Andrew Charles Henry Crisford FSA
*2012, Mark Westcombe Elliott FCA
*2013, Prof Paul Eugene Marcus Jarrett FRCS
*2014, [[Jonathan Betts|Jonathan Daniel Betts MBE FSA FBHI]]
*2015, Philip William Tennant Whyte, Hon FBHI
*2016, Robert Michael Justice Stewart
*2017, Roy Charles Harris, FBHI
*2018, Andrew Lewis James, FRSA, Hon MBHI
*2019, Jonathan Edward Hills
*2020, Joanna Migdal (Lady White)
*2021, Mark H Levy
*2022, Dr James Nye, FSA
*2023, Jane Pedler
*2024, Keith Scobie-Youngs, FBHI, ACR
*2025, Robert Woolgar Wren, FBHI
{{colend}}
{{Expand list|date=September 2017}}

==Company Chaplains and Church==
* Father Tim Handley
* [[St James Garlickhythe]]

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">
File:Wenceslas Hollar - Elias Allen.jpg|[[Elias Allen]]
File:Thomas Tompion00.jpg|[[Thomas Tompion]]
File:John Arnold.jpg|[[John Arnold (watchmaker)|John Arnold]]
File:Charles Frodsham.gif|[[Charles Frodsham]]
</gallery>

==See also==
*Antiquarian Horological Society
*[[British Horological Institute]]
*[[Clockmakers' Museum]]
*[[Dingwall Beloe Lecture Series]]
*[[Charles Gretton]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.clockmakers.org/ The Clockmakers' Company]

{{livery companies in the City of London}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worshipful Company Of Clockmakers}}
[[Category:Livery companies|Clockmakers]]
[[Category:Horology]]
[[Category:1631 establishments in England]]
[[Category:Time in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Horological organizations]]
[[Category:British clockmakers]]
[[Category:Charities based in London]]