Part 15

PROPOSES to open a convenient AUCTION-ROOM, over the Shop he now trades in, next week. Any Gentlemen that will furnish him with goods of any kind for Public or Private sale, on Commission, shall be served with fidelity, and the smallest favours in that way gratefully acknowledged.

The next notice of the auction-room appeared on February 21, 1786, when the newspaper advertised that

To-morrow will be SOLD, by Public Vendue, At WARREN'S Auction Room,

A VARIETY of articles, viz. Nails, Bar Lead, Glass Pewter, Buttons, Buckles, Chairs, Stands, &c, &c, &c.

*** The SALE to begin at 10 o'Clock, A.M.

No other notices of public sales appeared in the Journal for the next several months. The last notice of this period was another announcement of a sale, which was published in the issue of May 30, 1786:

Publick Vendue,

At WARREN's Auction Room, in PLYMOUTH: at Ten o'clock this morning. WILL be Sold, a quantity of bar lead, boxes of glass, 6 x 8. English Shovels and Tongs, bridle-Bits, and a variety of other articles of Hard-Ware. Also, a few Anvils at private sale.

Only one instrument signed by Warren is known to survive; it is a wooden surveying compass (fig. 61) in the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures at Yale University. The instrument, which appears to have been made from walnut, has a compass card with the following inscription around the central medallion: "Made and sold by BENJAMIN WARREN Plymouth New Eng^d."

The medallion (fig. 62) encloses a harbor scene with a brigantine of the 1740 period off a promontory on which is prominently situated a lighthouse with a smaller building partly visible at the left. The lighthouse is unusual in construction in that it features twin towers rising from a large rectangular wooden building.

As far as can be determined from available records, the only lighthouse in America of this period having such construction was the noted Gurnet Light, which was built at the tip of Duxbury Beach in Plymouth Bay in 1768. D. Alan Stevenson relates that the Governor's Council of Massachusetts, when it decided in 1768 to erect the Gurnet Lighthouse at Plymouth, adopted a novel plan to distinguish it from other American lighthouses. "This consisted of double lights set horizontally in the same structure. A timber house built at a cost of L660, 30' long and 20' high, had a lanthorn at each end to contain two four-wick lamps.

"In 1802 fire destroyed the house but the merchants of the town promptly subscribed to replace it by temporary lights, as the Government had no immediate funds at its disposal. An Act of Congress of 1802 allotted $2500 for building another set of twin lights and reimbursing the merchants for their expenditure.

"Though the idea of twin lights at Plymouth seemed an excellent distinction from a single navigation light shown at Barnstable harbor in the vicinity, they proved not entirely advantageous and a sea captain blamed them for causing his shipwreck. He had seen the light from only one tower and identified it with confidence as the Barnstable light; apparently, from a particular direction one tower hid the other. But local prejudice in favor of retaining the twin lights as a distinction prevailed until 1924 when, at last, opposition ceased to the recommendation which the Lighthouse Board expressed frequently that a single light would be preferable."

It seems quite likely that the compass card bears one of the very few surviving contemporary representations of the first Gurnet Light in Plymouth Bay. A search of the archives of the historical societies in Plymouth, Boston, and Worcester and the files of the U.S. National Archives has failed to reveal any illustration of this famous lighthouse.

Quite by coincidence, the name of Benjamin Warren was discovered among the entries of the day books of Paul Revere, the famous patriot, silversmith, and engraver. The entry (fig. 63) appears as follows:

1786 March 13. Benjm Warren Dr. Plimouth To printing one hundred Compass Cards 0-18-0.

Whether the compass card on the Warren instrument was produced by Revere is difficult to determine. Authorities on Revere's engravings agree that it could have been engraved by Revere but are unable to state it positively. It has been suggested that the entry in Revere's day book indicates that he merely printed the compass cards for Warren and that he did not engrave a plate. The charge for the work bears out this supposition; and furthermore, Revere's bills seemed to make a definite distinction between the engraving of plates and actual prints. Whether or not Revere was responsible for making the original engraving remains to be determined, but it is very probable that he printed the compass card of the instrument in the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures at Yale.

Daniel Burnap

One of the best known and most respected names among Connecticut clockmakers is that of Daniel Burnap (1759-1838) of East Windsor. Burnap was born in Coventry in 1759 and served an apprenticeship with Thomas Harland, clockmaker of Norwich. In about 1780 Burnap opened his own establishment, where he combined the crafts of clockmaking, cabinetmaking, and engraving of brass, in all of which he was greatly skilled. One of his apprentices was Eli Terry, who later achieved fame in the craft in his own right.

Burnap's business included clients in Windsor, Hartford, and Coventry, as well as some of the leading merchants and cabinetmakers of the nearby cities and towns. Although clockmaking was the primary business in which Burnap engaged, he also had a large trade for his surveying instruments, silver spoons, gold beads, harness and saddlery hardware, and shoe buckles.

Burnap prospered, and in about 1800 he moved back to his native town, Coventry. There he purchased a large farm and erected a shop and a sawmill, and in due course became the leading citizen of the community. He died in 1838, leaving a valuable technological record in the completeness of his journals and account books. A study of the entries of his day books and ledgers (see fig. 64) reveals that Burnap did a substantial amount of business in surveying compasses, chains, and protractors. Among his shop equipment after his death there was found an unfinished protractor, but no examples of his instruments are known except for a compass dial, inscribed with his name, that was discovered recently in the collection of a midwestern historical society.

It is significant to note that Burnap made instruments of varying quality. For instance, he charged three different prices for his surveyor's compasses. The highest-priced compasses cost L6; they were made of brass, and were of the more elaborate conventional type used by surveyors. A few examples that appeared in his records cost L4; these also were made of brass, but probably were of a simpler form. Several entries list surveying compasses priced at L2 and L2/8. One of these was made for Capt. Solomon Dewie (1750-1813) in September 1790 for L2/8. At the same time, Burnap charged him L0/1/6 for touching the needle of another compass. The entries in Burnap's account books do not state that these inexpensive compasses were constructed of wood, but it seems to be sufficiently conclusive that they were.

Gurdon Huntington

Gurdon Huntington (1763-1804) was not primarily a maker of scientific instruments, but he was established as a goldsmith and clockmaker. He was born in Windham, Connecticut, on April 30, 1763, the son of Hezekiah and Submit (Murdock) Huntington.

The Huntington family was one of the most important in Connecticut colonial history. Gurdon's father, Hezekiah, was in service during the Revolutionary War, going to Boston as a major with the first troops raised in Connecticut. When in Boston he witnessed the miserable condition of the arms then in the hands of the soldiers. Major Huntington went immediately to Philadelphia, where Congress was in session, and proposed to the Congress that he would return to his home in Windham and that there he would open a manufactory for repairing muskets and other arms. He claimed to have been the first man to have made a gun in the Colonies.

Gurdon was too young to have served in the Revolution, but he undoubtedly worked in his father's gun manufactory as a boy. In due course he learned the trades of goldsmith and clockmaker and established his own shop in Windham, which, according to an advertisement (fig. 65) in The Connecticut Gazette of June 11, 1784, was "a few rods north of Major Ebenezer Backus' store."

On Christmas Day, 1785, Gurdon was married in New London to Temperance Williams of Groton. In 1789 their first child, Marvin, was born, and in October of the same year the Huntingtons moved from Windham to Walpole, New Hampshire. No reason can be found for the move, other than the possibility that Gurdon might have anticipated greater opportunity in the new community. There he applied himself to his trade as goldsmith and clockmaker, but apparently he was not very successful. His family grew, and by the time of his death there were eight children. Possibly in an effort to supplement his income, Huntington served as postmaster of the community. In about 1797, seven or eight years after he had moved to Walpole, his father and mother joined him there, and it is believed that Major Hezekiah may have worked as a gunsmith during that period. Eventually the senior Huntington returned to Windham, Connecticut, where he died in 1807.

Meanwhile Gurdon Huntington struggled on until his death on July 26, 1804. He died insolvent, which created a considerable problem in view of the large family he left behind him. Huntington's estate was administered by Asa Sibley, a clockmaker in Walpole. Sibley had moved to Walpole from his home in Woodstock, Connecticut, in the 1790's and he remained there until 1808, when he again returned to Woodstock. Gurdon Huntington's widow removed to Bloomfield, Ohio, with her children, and she died there on May 25, 1823. Most of her children settled in Bloomfield, but several of them moved to New Hartford, New York.