Simon Willard, Clockmaker
Simon Willard, born 3 April 1753, was the eighth child of Benjamin and Sarah Willard, descendents of Major Simon Willard, the founder of Concord, Massachusetts.
Among the famous Willard clockmaking sons, Simon was the second eldest brother among Benjamin, Ephraim and Aaron Willard. Simon worked in his hometown of Grafton until he moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts in the late 1770′s.
As a clockmaker, Simon was a prodigy who was making superior clocks at age seventeen in the first year of his apprenticeship to his brother Benjamin. As a master of his craft he had many apprentices over the years, including Levi and Abel Hutchins, Elnathan Taber and Daniel Munroe, Jr. In addition to his famous “Roxbury-type” tall case clocks, Simon made clock jacks for roasting to meats, shelf clocks, gallery and lighthouse clocks and tower clocks.
Simon Willard was married twice and had eleven children by his second wife, three of whom became associated with the clock business, including Simon, Jr. The senior Willard retired in 1839 and sold his tools to his former apprentice, Elnathan Taber, who was also allowed to use Simon’s name on his clocks. Willard died in Boston, 30 August 1848.
Simon Willard, Jr., son of the famous Massachusetts clockmaker, was born in Roxbury, apprenticed himself to his father and was making clocks by 1817. He was working in New York by 1826, where he learned chronometer making, but two years later he was back in Boston where he was in charge of the tower clocks there and at Harvard College. His son, Zabadiel, was born circa 1845 and was the last of the famous Willard clockmakers.
For the complete story of this remarkable family, see Simon Willard and His Clocks, 1968, by John Ware Willard.