Footnotes

Samuel Barkley, sometimes spelt Barclay, was apprenticed to George Graham in 1715, meaning he was likely born around 1701. He was originally from Tockenham, Wiltshire, and his father was Reverend Benjamin Barkley. He gained his freedom in 1722 and remained working alongside Graham in his shop, eventually becoming the shop's Foreman, and taking increasingly more care of the business as time progressed. In all, Barkley would spend 36 years working with Graham, until the latter's death in November 1751. Graham was interred in Westminster Abbey, next to his past Master Thomas Tompion. In the burial announcement two days later, it was also announced that Samuel Barkley and Thomas Colley would be succeeding Graham in his shop.
Two days after Graham's death, Thomas Mudge took out an advertisement to boast of his connections to Graham as one of his apprentices. Mudge emphasised that his work was done in the same style as Graham, adding in later adverts that he even employed the same workers Graham had. Barkley and Colley responded by taking out their own adverts, crucially waiting until after the funeral, the implication being that Mudge hadn't shown respect in his rush to claim Graham's legacy. Barkley referenced his partner, Thomas Colley, in the adverts and drew attention to the fact that they were both the executors of Graham's will. Barkley also emphasised the fact that, as Foreman, he had been running Graham's shop for several years before the latter's death, and the public could therefore expect the same level of skill and quality.
It is unknown where Thomas Colley served his apprenticeship, though he appears to have lived with Graham for some time before 1751. Along with Barkley, Colley served as an executor for Graham's will and both received money from him. In the adverts proclaiming Barkley and Colley's succession, Colley is simply referred to as 'the other Executor', making it difficult to determine what his role was in the shop before Graham's death. However, less then a year after Graham's death, Colley was made free of the Goldsmith's Company by Redemption. It is possible that 'Thomas Colley' was responsible for the 'TC' marks found on John Harrison's personal pocket watch case; Harrison received assistance (recommendations, etc) from Graham during the latter's lifetime, and it seems likely that this professional courtesy would have been extended by his successors.
Barkley never married, and died shortly after Graham, in 1753, though there is some indication he might have stepped down from day to day running of the shop as early as 1752, possibly due to poor health. His will, drawn up in 1748/9 was extremely brief and unwitnessed; in it he left all his possessions to his eldest brother Benjamin. His only instruction was that he wished to be buried near to his two sisters. As his will had no witnesses, Thomas Colley and John Shelton, a watchmaker, likely one of the long-lasting Shelton-family horologists, were called as witnesses to attest that the will was in Barkley's own hand. Both asserted that they knew him quite well, had seen his writing on a number of occasions and could confirm that the will was his.
Interestingly, the same verification had been required for Graham's will, which among other things appointed Barkley and Colley Graham's successors. Graham's will had been unwitnessed; Thomas Wright of St. Bride's and John Priest of St. Botolph's were both called to confirm that Graham's will was legitimate. It is likely that this was the same John Priest who had been Graham's apprentice.
Thomas Colley married, when is unknown, and he and his wife had eight children, the two eldest seemingly being Mary and Deborah, then followed by George Graham, Thomas, Sarah, Samuel, Elizabeth, and Maury (?) (name difficult to discern). Colley continued running the shop on his own, eventually taking John Priest into partnership, possibly as early as 1753/54. John Priest was Graham's penultimate apprentice, beginning in 1739, and gaining his freedom in 1746. This would suggest that Priest was born around 1725.
Priest does not seem to have been a full partner, however, as only Colley's name is listed in the rate books. Colley died less then ten years later, in 1771. He left a property in Fleet Street to his father-in-law Benjamin Burgiss and two of his children, George Graham and Thomas Colley. This property was described as being in/around White's Alley and near Chancery Lane. He also instructed that 'All my leasehold houses & estates in White Friars' and all his goods, chattels and personal estate were to be sold or mortgaged, which ever was more profitable, and the money distributed amongst his children, with Mary and Deborah receiving the largest share. He also mentions at least seven tenants in situ in his White Friars property; this suggests that the Colley family was quite prosperous. It is not clear if this was from Colley's horological work, or money he or his wife already had. He also appointed Benjamin Burgiss, Mary and Deborah Colley to be his executors.
Priest, if he was still working in the shop, does not appear to have stayed long, by 1773 the shop was listed as an upholsters run by Jellicoe & Wheeler. It is unclear what happened to Priest after Colley's death as there is no record of him afterwards, nor was he mentioned in Colley's will.
Thomas Colley Junior was apprenticed as an engraver to Mathias Darly, a horologist, engraver and print seller, a year after his father's death, in 1772. He gained his freedom of the Goldsmith's Company and his son, also named Thomas Colley, would become an engraver, and gain his freedom of the Company by patrimony in 1799. The careers and lives of Colley's other children require further investigation.




Will of Thomas Colley (1771). The National Archives: Public Record Office. Catalogue reference: PROB 11/963/349
Will of Samuel Barkley (1753). The National Archives: Public Record Office. Catalogue reference: PROB 11/802/175
British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (2021) Jellicoe, William (1760-1781). Available at: https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/jellicoe-william-1760-81
Priestley, P. (2006) 'John Harrison's Watchcase Makers', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 29 (4), p. 495.
Evans, J. (2004) 'Thomas Tompion: At the Dial and Three Crowns. Part II', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 28 (4), p. 452
Penfold, J. (1983) 'The London Background of George Graham', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 14 (3), pgs. 272-280.
Millburn, J. (1973) 'The Fleet Street Address of Graham and His Successors', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 8 (3), pgs. 299-301.
Lloyd, H. A. (1951) 'George Graham: Horologist and Astronomer', Horological Journal, Vol. 93 (11), pgs. 708-717.
Howse, D. and Hutchinson, B. (1969) 'The Saga of the Shelton Clocks', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 6 (5), pgs. 281-298.
Atkins, C. E. (1931) The Company of Clockmakers: Register of Apprentices 1631-1931, London: The Clockmakers Company.


The time it takes for the Earth to make a complete rotation around the Sun, commonly called a year, is not exactly 365 days, it is closer to 365 ¼ days. If a day is defined as the period of time it takes the Sun to move from its apex (when it is highest in the sky), set, rise, and return to its apex, then this is not exactly 24 hours and in fact varies throughout the year. This unevenness in the days and year is not due to a flawed counting or division system, it is down to two things; the Earth's orbit around the Sun and Earth's Precession, more commonly called 'wobble'.
The Earth's orbit around the Sun is not completely concentric, it is instead elliptical, being closest to the Sun around 21/22 June and furthest from the Sun around 21/22 December. Earth's Precession refers to the fact that the Earth does not rotate evenly on its axis. There is a slight variation, or wobble, of a couple of degrees away from the axis of rotation. Taken together, these two phenomena mean that no matter what base counting system is used, days (and years) will never be equal, discrete units. Interestingly, these two phenomena also contribute to making Earth a good planet for fostering life.
While this is good for life, it makes it very difficult for mechanical timekeeping, which essentially relies on equal discreet units that can be recorded. This is true of not just most mechanical clocks, but also clepsydra (water clocks) and incense clocks; all three rely on recording discrete units, either measured amounts of water, lengths of incense or mechanical ticks. An obvious exception to this is mechanical Japanese clocks before 1873, which kept irregular time, thus proving more consistent with the seasons (see Lot 129 footnote). However, many of these clocks needed human intervention as the seasons changed, to change out hour plates, etc. The other exception is sundials.
Sundials are made to track the sun at a given latitude and record the Sun's progress against a fixed, equidistant scale. This means that the rate of time varies with the seasons; days and hours literally being longer or shorter depending on the month. The difference between the time recorded on a sundial (the solar day) and the time recorded by a mechanical timekeeper (mean time) is shown in an Equation of Time table. These tables are designed to show how fast or slow a mechanical clock is to a sundial, allowing corrections to be made to mechanical timepieces, long before atomic time was even conceived of. As may be seen on the table for this lot, around 15 April, 16 June, 31 August, and 24 December are the only times when mean time and solar time are the same, whereas 11 February and 3 November show the greatest variation with a mechanical clock being either 14.49 minutes faster then a sundial, or 16.13 minutes slower, respectively.
Equation of Time tables would sometimes be incorporated into clocks; usually a separate dial would indicate the daily deviation between the two. Beginning in the late 17th century, various different methods for calculating the mean time were proposed, from Huygens to James Ferguson. The table most commonly encountered is by John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal of the Royal Observatory, and it was published around 1672.
As time became more standardised in the late 19th century, the Equation of Time started to become a relic as did using the sundial to tell time. This continued, culminating, it could be argued, with the invention of atomic time. Atomic time records the rate of decay of certain particles, usually caesium but others are encountered. Because each particle decays at a constant rate, they're rate of decay can be used instead of a ticking escapement or a vibrating quartz crystal to record time. Like mechanical timekeepers, clepsydra, and incense clocks, what is being measured is a discreet, even unit. Like all these other timepieces, however, there will still be a difference between atomic time and solar time; left uncorrected this drift could accumulate until atomic time differs from solar time by months rather than minutes!



Rawlings, A. L. (1948) The Science of Clocks and Watches 2nd Edition. London: Sir Isaac Pitman &Sons, Ltd.
Bird, A. (1973) English House Clocks 1600-1850. Devon: David & Charles (Holdings) Limited.
Mondschein, K. (2020) On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wheeling Jesuit University/NASA (2005) Orbital Changes. Available at: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/dinosaurflr/wobble.html