Robert Harvey Clockmaker Robert Harvey was the first to design and introduce to England the domestic lantern clock in England.[1] He is also the maker of the earliest known surviving English brass lantern clock c1610.[2] Very few details are known about Harvey’s life, and there has been some confusion over exactly who he was. At first it was thought that the ‘Robert Harvey’ identified as the first registered clockmaker in Oxford in 1588 was the same person as the London clockmaker of the same name who worked in Little Britain, St Botolph, Aldersgate. These were probably two different people, and it was the Robert Harvey of London who designed and made lantern clocks. There is also a common misconception that it was Robert who in 1598 or 1599 travelled with the organ-builder Thomas Dallam to Istanbul to deliver an elaborate organ clock to the Grand Turk at Queen Elizabeth I’s behest.[3] We now know that it was, in fact, Robert’s father, the clockmaker John Harvey, who accompanied Dallam to Istanbul on this mission.[4] We think that Robert was born around 1581. It is not known where he was apprenticed, but a ‘Robert Harvey’ is mentioned in the will of Peter Medcalfe. In 1571, Robert’s father John was apprenticed to Medcalfe. In his will, Medcalfe left Robert ‘…Five pounds to be paid to him at the age of one and twenty years…’. Perhaps Robert was also apprenticed to Medcalfe, and then, after Medcalfe’s death in 1592, trained by his father John. John Harvey died on 1 September 1602. Two years later, in 1604, Robert was made free of the Clothworkers’ Company by ‘patrimony’. He did not need to have proof of apprenticeship to be granted this. As he was John Harvey’s son, a patrimony freedom was his by right of his father’s freedom in that Company. Freedom allowed him to make, sign and sell clocks in London. The fact that Robert was a clockmaker rather than a clothmaker did not preclude membership as members of such a company did not necessarily follow the trade that membership implied. A number of early members of this company, in addition to the Harveys, were in fact clockmakers.[5] Robert’s workshop was in Little Britain, situated just outside the London city walls and accessed through the Aldersgate from the City. The Clothmakers’ Company records indicate that in 1608 Robert took on his younger brother Thomas on as an apprentice. Horologist Brian Loomes asserts ‘… we could say that Robert Harvey made the first household clocks in Britain.’[6] Before Robert introduced his lantern clock design to the domestic clock market during the early 1600s, very little attention had been paid to creating clocks for the average household. Up until then, it was only royalty and aristocrats who could afford these extravagant and expensive marvels. Although Harvey’s lantern clock is reminiscent of European Gothic clocks (see the Gothic Iron Wall Clock, made around 1500), he changed and improved upon the form in key ways. Chiefly, he appears to have realised that the wrought-iron frame and wheels of Gothic clocks could be cast in brass with far less effort and expense. By using brass castings instead of iron ones, Harvey’s domestic clock design simplified construction, delivered a more durable mechanism, and reduced the cost of the production.[7] His were certainly the first domestic clocks to be made in considerable numbers, and Loomes calculates that Harvey’s manufacturing process enabled the production of hundreds of lantern clocks during his working years.[8] Harvey’s successful design was also copied by other makers, and his lantern clock movement, comprising a balance wheel and verge escapement, was in use without adaptation until the invention of the pendulum in c1658.[9] After this, lantern clocks were usually adapted with a bob pendulum, and some were controlled by a second pendulum and anchor escapement. Still, Harvey’s lantern clock continued to be made in large quantities in London right up to the early 1900s – a 300-year use-life for this innovative and functional design. Just a handful of Harvey’s clocks have survived. There is his Early Lantern Clock, made around 1610, which is exhibited on Clocktime and discussed by Loomes.[10] We also know of a miniature hanging alarm wall clock of the hook-and-spike type, created by Harvey and in a private collection. Additionally, a lantern clock produced by the Harvey workshop and signed by Thomas Harvey was shown in the 2003 Horological Masterworks exhibition in Oxford.[11] This last clock most likely post-dates 1615, as Thomas could not sign and sell a clock until he had finished his apprenticeship (which ended in 1615) and was given freedom of the city of London. We know from several London parish accounts that Harvey also worked on the church clocks of All Hallows Staining from 1602 to at least 1605, St. Giles's from 1606 to 1608, and St. Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf in 1614.[12] Harvey died in the spring of 1615. His will was dated 9 February 1615 and was proved in June 1615. In it, he mentioned his widow, Mary, and describes himself as a member of the Clothworkers’ Company living in the parish of St Botolph’s, Aldersgate, London. He also left his brother Thomas ‘one of [his] clokes ymediately’. Robert probably did this because he knew that Thomas would have no means of earning money as a clockmaker until his apprenticeship ended in December 1615. Bequeathing the clock to his younger brother, gave the younger man something to sell to earn money. It is also worth considering the possibility that the lantern clock signed by Thomas (mentioned above) was the one that Robert left to him, as it features Robert’s characteristic engraved gadrooning on the central disc of the dial. Robert Harvey was only about 33 years old when he died. He was a talented, innovative and prolific clockmaker, who lived a short, productive life and contributed immensely to the development of the early domestic clock market in London. Read more about the introduction of lantern clocks to the British domestic market in the Clocktime article The first timekeepers: Telling time before the pendulum clock. Dr John C Taylor OBE and Dr Kristin Leith, Senior Curator of Clocktime September 2022 End Notes [1] Robey 2016; 2017. [2] The earliest surviving English domestic clock appears to be the Porrvis clock, made in 1567 (Robey and Gillibrand. 2013). Although this clock pre-dates Harvey’s lantern clock, it is of ‘a Flemish Gothic clock design’. Thus, Harvey’s lantern clock maintains the distinction of being one of the oldest surviving domestic clocks of English design. [3] Loomes (2013) conflates Robert’s work with that of his father John, and reports that it was Robert who accompanied Dallam on the mission to deliver the organ to Mahomed III, the Sultan of the Turkish Empire and Grand Seignor of the Turks. Mahomed III was commonly known in England as the ‘Grand Turk’. [4] Bent 1892; Danson 2009. [5] Loomes 2013. [6] Ibid. [7] Jaggar 1983, 291; Loomes 2014, 248. [8] Loomes 2013. [9] At the time, lantern clocks were the only domestic clocks and were simply called ‘clocks’ or ‘chamber clocks’. [10] Loomes 2013. [11] Horological Masterworks Exhibit No. 2 The Museum for the History of Science, 2003. [12] Loomes 2013. References Bent, T. (editor). 1892. Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant: I. The Diary of Master Thomas Dallam, 1599–1600. II. Extracts from the Diaries of Dr. John Covel, 1670–1679. With Some Account of the Levant Company of Turkey Merchants (Issue 87 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society). B. Franklin. Danson, L. 2009. ‘The Sultan’s organ: Presents and self-presentation in Thomas Dallam’s "Diary"’ in Renaissance Studies 23(5): 639–658. Jaggar, C. 1983. Royal Clocks: The British monarchy and its timekeepers 1300–1900. London: Robert Hale. Loomes, B. 2013. ‘Collecting Antique Clocks: Robert Harvey, maker of the first lantern clocks in Britain.’ https://www.brianloomes.com/collecting/harvey/ Loomes, B. 2014. Clockmakers of Britain: 1286–1700. Mayfield, Ashbourne: Mayfield Books. Robey, J. and L. Gillibrand. 2013. ‘The Porrvis clock of 1567: The earliest surviving domestic clock made in England’ in Antiquarian Horology 34(4): 503–518. Robey, J. December 2016. ‘The origin of the English lantern clock. Part 1: Comparison with European Gothic clocks’ in Antiquarian Horology 37(4): 511–521. Robey, J. A. 2017. ‘The origin of the English lantern clock. Part 2: The earliest lantern clocks.’ Antiquarian Horology 38(1): 35–50.
