Thomas Gooch Thomas Gooch was a London-based maker of watch cases. In 1778, at the age of 12, he began his apprenticeship with Thomas Hailes, a watch-case maker on Berkley (now Bisson) and Red Lion (now Britton) Streets, in the Clerkenwell neighbourhood, where Gooch continued to work throughout his career. As Hailes was a member of the Clockmakers’ Company, Gooch would have been given his freedom of the city upon completion of his seven-year apprenticeship in 1785. By 1790, Gooch was on Bayne’s Row. At some point he began working in partnership with Edward Bracebridge, William Pleace and Bartholomew Need; however this arrangement was dissolved in 1799. He then went on to work in other businesses. For 1810 and 1811, the ‘Post Office’ directories list ‘Gooch & Harper, watch manufacturers’; this business was dissolved in 1812. Subsequently, he is listed in other directories as ‘Thomas, watch case maker, 23 Coppice Row’, where he apparently lived for 40 years. His work can be identified by his maker’s mark, TG. Later in life, Gooch became a real estate developer. By the time of his death, he owned at least 107 houses. Gooch’s will was written on 15 November 1831, proved on 5 June 1832, and witnessed by Sarah Lindley and Sarah Anne Drake of Turnham Green, Chiswick.
