Footnotes

Claude Duchesne was seemingly born around 1670. It is commonly accepted that he lived in Paris, until just after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, at which point he joined many other Huguenot refugees and fled to the U.K. It is uncertain exactly when he arrived, with some putting it as early as 1689. The first concrete evidence of his life in the U.K. is from 1693; not only was he made free of the Clockmaker's Company in this year, he also married Elizabeth Bossu in Stepney. The couple would have at least three children; Claudius, born in 1699, Elizabeth born in 1706, and Anthony, born in 1708, though there are some contemporary reports of the couple having five children at one point. Claudius would eventually become a weaver, and Anthony would become a goldsmith. It is not known what became of Elizabeth. Duchesne became a British citizen in 1711.
Duchesne was known to sign his clocks as either 'Claude' or 'Claudius' and 'Duchesne' or 'Du Chesne'. The exact location of his shop is questionable; most clocks give a location of either 'Dean Street, Soho' or 'Long Acre', so it seems likely that he was working in Soho. Wherever he worked, Duchesne appears to have been a highly regarded maker, especially in the construction of musical clocks. An account given by Jane Squire in 1731, notes that she 'understood he had made the musical Part of most of the musical Clocks of Note in Town'.
Duchesne set himself apart from other makers of the time by featuring interchangeable music barrels, a style that had last been extensively practiced by William Jourdain in the later 17th century. Both makers also featured twelve bells with multiple, variable hammers and parallel motion music work. This suggests a detailed knowledge of music theory, in addition to the horological skill required to make such clocks.
It seems that Duchesne may also have had some acquaintance with George Graham and John Harrison, the latter being introduced to Duchesne by the former. It is thought that Harrison contacted Duchesne in order to obtain the large quantities of brass he, Harrison, needed for his horological experimentations.
Claude Duchesne is believed to have died in April 1733, and been buried in St. James, Paddington. His son, Anthony, married Anne Gagnon, and the couple had six children, one of whom, Claude (born in 1735) would go on to be a clockmaker. Duchesne's other known son, Claudius, married Anne, and the couple had four children. One of their children, Elizabeth 'Betty' Duchesne was born in 1724 and was known to be close friends with John, Charles and Sarah Wesley, with John Wesley conducting her funeral in 1776. It is thought that Elizabeth was responsible for gifting a walnut, moon phase eight-day longcase clock, made by her grandfather, to the Wesley's. The clock is reported to have never left Wesley's house, where it remains to this day. A late 19th century account suggests that the clock is the very timepiece that inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write The Old Clock on the Stairs, though this is not definitive:
'Half-way up the stairs it stands/And points and beckons with its hands.
By day its voice is low and light/But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall/It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor/And seems to say, at each chamber-door, --
"Forever -- never!/Never -- forever!"'

Blake, G. (2011) 'A Record of the Death of Claude Duchesne', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 32 (5), pgs. 730-731.
Turner, A. (2014) 'Charles Clay: fashioning timely music', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 35 (3), pg.933.
Betts, J. (2017) Marine Chronometers at Greenwich. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pg. 143.
Blake, G., Wintle, C., Gill, J. (2010) 'Claude Duchesne- Huguenot Clockmaker', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. 32 (1), pgs. 43-51.
British Horological Institute (1891) 'Correspondence', The Horological Journal, Vol. 34 (1), pg. 16.
Wesley's Chapel & Leysian Mission (2023) Virtual Tour: Wesley's House, Study. Available at: https://www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/your-visit/virtual-tour/
Dawber, E. G. (1898-1899) 'Some Thoughts on Clocks and Their Decoration: Part Two', The Architectural Review Vol. 5, pg. 261.
Longfellow, H. (1890) The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes, Riverside Edition, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin.
Ord-Hume, A. W. J. G. (1995) The Musical Clock, Ashbourne: Mayfield Books.