Four of the Willard brothers were clockmakers. Their names were Benjamin (1743-1803), the third child of twelve siblings; Simon (1753-1848), the eighth child; Ephram (life span not available), the ninth child; and Aaron (1757-1844), the tenth child. Very little has been written about Ephram and his activities. He apparently worked for a while in the area where his siblings worked, including Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1798, he left the area. He was listed as a New York resident in 1805.
After completing his apprenticeship in 1764, Benjamin began making clocks in Grafton, Massachusetts. He soon moved to Boston and opened a shop on Roxbury Street where a colony of artists resided. There he made a variety of clock styles. In 1773 he ran an advertisement in the Boston Gazette that read, “Benjamin Willard at his shop in Roxbury Street … has on sale musical clocks playing different tunes every day of the week and on Sunday a psalm tune.” He further stated: “The music plays once every hour and does not obstruct the clock’s motion in any way.”
Simon was the second brother to enter the clockmaking trade. He became the most famous of the four siblings. Tall-case clocks (now called grandfathers) were the norm until Simon helped introduce shelf and wall clocks. Around 1800, he began working on an eight-day wall clock. It was patented on February 8, 1892, as his “Improved Timepiece.” The pendulum was suspended from the front with the weight at the bottom that allowed the pendulum to be screwed down. This meant that the clock could be moved without damaging the suspension. Because of the clock’s shape, it was called a banjo clock. The first models were time only. The clocks featured a clear seven-inch dial, fine hands, a mahogany case, and the glass was decorated with gold leaf. The weight-driven movement was so accurate that “it kept well within one minute’s error a week.” This beautiful instrument won acclaim at once and is still a popular style. Naturally, others desired to create similar clocks. They had to make slight changes, however, so as not to infringe on Simon’s patent.
Simon also invented the lighthouse clock, which he patented in 1822. It had an octagonal base, a mahogany case, a tapered circular trunk, and a glass dome covering the eight-day alarm movement. An engraved brass dial with arrow7 hands completed the clock. The clock is on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His work is featured in other museums, too. For example, a ninety-twTo-inch-high Simon Willard grandfather clock with a white iron dial plus moon and calendar configuration is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.
Simon advertised that he made church-steeple clocks as well as eight-day timepieces. But he was prolific as he was skilled; in a thirty-eight-year period, he made approximately four thousand clocks. Simon’s younger brother Aaron made banjo clocks, and with his brothers’ help created thirty-hour wall timepieces. Soon, they and other makers fashioned the earliest known American shelf clocks. Their cases looked like the top section of tall-case clocks, earning the name, “Massachusetts half clocks.”
The Willard Brothers contributed ideas that promoted and expanded the clock industry. Their clocks were durable and ran well because of their precise workmanship and use of hard brass.
