Simon Willard clocks

Simon Willard clocks were produced in Massachusetts in the towns of Grafton and Roxbury, near Boston, by Simon Willard (April 3, 1753 – August 30, 1848), a celebrated U.S. clockmaker. Among his many innovations and timekeeping improvements, Simon Willard is best known for inventing the eight-day patent timepiece that came to be known as the gallery or banjo clock.

Simon Willard was of the fifth Willard generation in America. The original Willard family had arrived in 1634 from Horsmonden, Kent (England), and they were among the founders of Concord, Massachusetts. Simon Willard's parents were Benjamin Willard and Sarah Brooks, who were Grafton natives. Like all of the Willard brothers, Simon was born on the family farm in Grafton, on April 3, 1753. He was the second son; his brothers were Benjamin, Aaron, and Ephraim.

The farm, now operated as the Willard House and Clock Museum, had been built in 1718 by the Willards' third American generation. When Simon Willard was born, the house had just one room. The elder brother, Benjamin, who was 10 years older than Simon, learned horology and opened a workshop adjacent to the house in 1766. It is presumed that the other Willard brothers were taught horology by Benjamin.

At the age of eleven Simon began to study horology, showing some inherent aptitude for it. A year later, Benjamin hired an Englishman named Morris to teach horology -- particularly to Simon. Years afterward, Simon revealed that Morris did not actually know much on the matter and that his brother Benjamin had been his actual mentor. After one more year, Simon built his first tall clock.

Like some other contemporary horologists, the Willards divided their lives between farm chores and the clock business. As the latter became profitable, Benjamin set up a workshop in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1767. Simon Willard managed his own business in Grafton; some clocks survive bearing the maker's mark "Simon Willard, Grafton."

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