Foreign worker In the context of the 17th century London clockmaking market and its guild the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, a ‘foreign worker’ was any worker who was from outside the city. Thus, in the eyes of the Company, Hugeuenot workers and even the Company's first Master, the Scottish clock and watchmaker David Ramsay (who was also the Chief Clockmaker to King James I and VI and a royal agent of his son and successor King Charles I), were ‘foreigners’. Clockmaker Joseph Knibb also ran into problems with the city of Oxford shortly after he moved there and began signing his clocks ‘of Oxford’. His fellow clockmakers considered him a ‘foreigner’ because he was not from Oxford and consequently launched a petition against him.
