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New Garden Historical Commission
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Isaac Jackson, 18th Century New Garden Clockmaker
by Margaret B.Jones, PhD
Clockmaker, Isaac Jackson, had roots in New Garden Township
even before he was born. His fathers sister, Rebecca, was
married to Jeremiah Starr and his mother, Katherine Miller
Jackson was the daughter of James Miller whose farm lay on New
Garden Road West. However, in 1734, Isaac Jackson was born at
Harmony Grove, the Jackson homestead east of West Grove. Young
Isaac grew up in a family of craftsmen; his father, William
Jackson, and his grandfather, Isaac Jackson, were both weavers.
This was not unusual in Colonial America where farmers frequently
pursued a craft during winter months.
When Isaac was a young teenager, he was apprenticed to John
Wood, Sr., considered one of the most accomplished of the
Philadelphia clockmakers. Then in about 1755, having acquired the
skills of his trade, Isaac was bound over as a trained journeyman
to Quaker clockmaker, Benjamin Chandlee, Jr. of Nottingham. After
spending two years honing his skills in the Chandlee workshop,
Isaac returned home to Harmony Grove where he continued to make
clocks. These years of Isaacs life can be verified because
with each move, he transferred his Friends Meeting membership,
from New Garden to Nottingham and then back to New Garden.
In 1762, Isaac married a distant cousin, Hannah Jackson, and
moved to the 200-acre farm his father purchased for them in in
New Garden Township. Today, the New Garden Elementary School sits
in the middle of Isaac Jacksons land and south of the
school, the white farmhouse is Isaacs house, now doubled in
size.
When Isaac and Hannah built their brick house, it contained
only four rooms, two up and two down, and here they reared eleven
children to adulthood. Because no workshop appears as an
outbuilding on Isaacs early tax records, initially, he was
probably making clocks in an upstairs room. He needed a fireplace
in which to heat metal; we know he worked in brass, in pewter,
and in silver. The works of his clocks were brass and the dials
were often of brass with silverplating. Not only did Isaac
Jackson make clockworks, but as a consummate craftsman, he also
made most of his own tools. And there must have been a market for
pewter porringers because his probate inventory lists twenty
pewter porringers. For many years, according to one of his
grandsons, a pewter porringer hung by the pump at Harmony Grove.
Although Isaac Jackson was a clockmaker, he was a cabinetmaker
as well who used walnut for the cases of his tall clocks. His
early clock cases are all similar in design and reflect his
belief in simplicity as well as the conviction of simplicity of
his clients. Most of Jacksons clocks were sold either to
his Quaker neighbors or to other members of the Society of
Friends. We dont know why, but perhaps because making the
clock works was more interesting or more lucrative, Jackson
eventually engaged other cabinetmakers to construct his clock
cases. This would account for the more elaborate cases on some of
his later clocks.
Three surviving early Jackson clocks have only one hand,
showing the influence of his training with John Wood, Sr. These
one-hand clocks, unique in Chester County, have only thirty-hour
movements, meaning they will only run for thirty hours after
being wound. The remainder of the known Jackson clocks have
eight-day movements which need winding only once a week. Isaac
Jackson signed the faces of his clocks, Isaac Jackson, New
Garden, but sometimes, due to lack of space, Isc
Jackson or New Gar. Frequently, he inscribed
small silver moons in the corners of the clockface with
Time Passeth Swiftly Away, one word per corner.
We may never know how many clocks Isaac Jackson made; with so
many house fires in the 18th and 19th centuries, many of his
clocks were probably lost. In his 1947 book entitled
Chester County Clocks, Arthur James listed
twenty-seven known clocks, however, in the intervening years more
have been discovered. Recently the Historical Commission has
responded to two different inquiries as to the provenance of
Jackson clocks. And it is also unlikely that Arthur James was
aware of the Jackson clock with Miller provenance, now belonging
to New Garden Township. This clock, secured by the Historical
Commission with support from individual donors and the Board of
Supervisors, will commemorate the life of our remarkable 18th
century resident.
Some have speculated that active farming may have been
difficult for Isaac Jackson. He suffered from a twisted or club
foot which could have made him more a clockmaker than a farmer.
In any event, his surviving clocks are much more numerous than
those of most clockmakers of the period; most of whom have only
two or three surviving clocks. And not only do more of Isaac
Jacksons clocks survive, but according to Edward LaFond,
who for many years cared for the collection of Chester County
clocks at the Historical Society, Jacksons clocks are
superior to any others in the collection.
During the years 1774-1780, Isaac Jackson had an apprentice
and then partner in Elisha Kirk. Although the two men would have
collaborated on clocks, the clocks they made would all have
carried Isaac Jacksons name. Isaac Jackson and Elisha Kirk
might have been busy in the workshop on the afternoon of
September 9, 1775 when the British and Hessian soldiers,
pillaging as they went, marched along the road through the
Jackson farm. Apparently, Jackson did not suffer any grievous
damage because his name did not appear on a 1777 New Garden
Meeting list of those who needed assistance.
Isaac Jacksons interests extended well beyond the
confines of his clockmaking workshop. Writing in 1885, Joseph
Lewis, said his grandfather, Isaac Jackson was noted in his day
for his efforts on behalf of the people of color. He was an
active abolitionist. Because he lived near the Maryland line, he
was frequently called upon when former slaves were captured on
false pretenses. Often on these occasions, he and his friend,
Jacob Lindley, were successful in their efforts. However, they
were often involved in considerable danger because the claimants
were generally vindictive and often desperate. Lewis also wrote
that for many years, the Jackson home was a refuge for those
escaping slavery; any fugitive could be assured of safety and of
assistance.
Beginning in 1758, in conjunction with John Woolman, Jacob
Lindley, and others, Isaac Jackson undertook to convince the
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends to take steps to
emancipate all slaves held by members of the Society of Friends.
In this effort, Isaac Jackson personally visited the Quaker
owners of more than 1100 slaves and reported that a great number
of persons visited agreed to take steps to free their slaves.
These labors to abolish slave holding within the Society of
Friends were successful. In 1776, the Yearly Meeting directed all
Friends Meetings to deny the right of membership to any persons
who persisted in holding slaves.
Isaac Jackson was a literate man whose library contained many
works of early Quakers: George Foxs Journal, Robert
Barclays Apology, John Woolmans Journal, as well as a
Bible and Concordance. An active Quaker, he made many trips to
Philadelphia where in the early 1780s, he was named Clerk
of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. This appointment, was an honor
which acknowledged his commitment to Quaker thought and concerns.
Joseph Lewis went on to write that his grandfathers
hospitality was generous. He built a stable separate from his
farm buildings, to accommodate his visitors horses and no
man of any note visited the neighborhood who was not a guest at
his table.
Isaac Jackson died in 1807 and was buried in the New Garden
Friends cemetery. And so, we celebrate the life of the man, who
by all accounts, was Chester Countys premier 18th century
clockmaker. He was a man who balanced his life with a commitment
to his Quaker belief of simplicity in all things, a belief in the
dignity of his fellow men, and a concern for the social welfare
of his community.
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Thirty Hour - One Handed Clock
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Eight Day - Two Handed Clock
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Patricia Harlan McClure of Beaverton, Oregon sent us a photo
of her family's Isaac Jackson clock. It is thought to have been
purchased by her great-great-great-great-grandfather David Harlan
Sr who lived five miles from Isaac Jackson in London Grove
Township in the mid 1700s. Over its 250 years it has become a
well travelled clock having chimed day and night for seven
generations of the family in houses in London Grove Twp, Hartford
MD, Bel Aire MD, Cleveland OH, southern California, and now
Oregon.
![](Patricia_Harlan_McClure.jpg)
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Inscription: "Improve Time Without Delay, For it Passeth
Swiftly Away, Isaac Jackson, Newgarden"