Timekeeping in Bedfordshire

Early horology

From the earliest times, the peoples of the earth have found ways of monitoring the passage of time. This is evident from the survival of primitive shadow clocks, sundials, hour glasses, and water clocks. A preoccupation with the measurement of time coupled with the advance of scientific knowledge eventually led to the invention of mechanical clocks with escapements. This development is believed to have taken place in Italy in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. Early mechanical clocks are illustrated in mediaeval illuminated manuscripts, and examples of early clocks of remarkable sophistication may be seen in museums around the world.

The annals of Dunstable Priory record that in 1283 a clock was made to stand over the pulpitum in the church - a reference interpreted by C. F. C. Beeson to be “the earliest English record of what is considered to be an escapement controlled clock”. This is certainly the first documentary evidence of any clock in Bedfordshire, although there is some uncertainty as to its form.

Domestic clocks

Early references to house clocks in Bedfordshire are rare, and we can find no mention of clocks and watches in the early wills and probate records. A watch is mentioned in the will of Benjamin Pigot of Lower Gravenhurst proved in 1606. Two inventories of 1619 provide further early references - one to a watch worth 20s. among the effects of Henry Richardson of Blunham, and the other to an hour glass owned by John Rogers of Chaigrave.

The picture is undoubtedly incomplete, since most of the early Bedfordshire probate inventories were destroyed in the nineteenth century. A detailed search in the wills might provide further references to clocks and watches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Other examples of documentary sources mentioning “clocks in context” include inventories and sale catalogues. For instance the marriage settlement of Thomas Bygrave and Elizabeth Whitbread, 1717, includes a schedule of household furniture in a farm at Cotton End, Cardington, including “a clock in the hall”.