Part 5

N.B. Said Dabney, sets Loadstones to a greater Perfection than any heretofore.

Dabney's master, Jonathan Sisson (1694-1749) originally of Lincolnshire, with a shop in the Strand, London, was a well-known maker of optical and mathematical instruments in the early decades of the 18th century. He was particularly noted for the exact division of scales, and examples of his work are to be found in the major collections.

Dabney's name appeared again several years later, in the Supplement to the Boston Evening Post for December 12, 1743, and again in the Boston Evening Post for December 19 of the same year, with the following advertisement:

To be shown by John Dabney, Mathematical Instrument maker, in Milk Street, Boston, on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Evenings, from five to eight o'clock, for the Entertainment of the Curious, the Magic Lanthorn an Optick Machine, which exhibits a great Number of wonderful and surprising Figures, prodigious large, and vivid, at Half a Crown each, Old Tenor.

In New York City, one of the earliest immigrant instrument makers was Charles Walpole, who established a shop at a corner in Wall Street, according to a notice in the May 26, 1746, issue of the New York Evening Post. The announcement stated that Walpole was a "citizen of London" and that at his shop "all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, whether in silver or brass, are made and mended...."

In the May 21, 1753, issue of The New York Gazette or The Weekly Post Boy there was an announcement by the widow of Balthaser Sommer who lived on Pot-Baker's Hill in Smith Street in New York City and who advertised herself as a "grinder of all sorts of optic glasses, spying glasses, of all lengths, spectacles, reading glasses for near-sighted people or others; also spying glasses of 3 feet long which are to set on a common Walking-Cane and yet be carried as a Pocket-Book."

John Benson emigrated from Birmingham, England, and established a lapidary and optical store in May 1793 at 12 Princess Street in New York, where he produced miniatures, lockets, rings, glasses, "as well as Spectacles, single reading and burning glasses, and where he also polished scratch'd glasses." In July 1797 he moved to 106 Pearl Street where he sold green goggles, thermometers, and opera and spy glasses, in addition to an assortment of jewelry. In September 1798 he was established at a new location, 147 Pearl Street, "At the sign of The Green Spectacles" where he specialized in optical goods. He featured for rent or sale a "Portable Camera Obscura" for the use of artists in drawing landscapes. His advertisements chronicled each change in location in the issues of The New York Daily Advertiser.

A craftsman whose name is well known in scientific circles was Anthony Lamb, who advertised in 1753 as a mathematical instrument maker living on Hunter's Key, New York. He claimed that he could furnish

Godfrey's newly invented quadrant, for taking the latitude or other altitudes at sea; hydrometers for trying the exact strength of spirits, large surveying instruments in a more curious manner than usual; which may be used in any weather without exception, small ditto which may be fixed on the end of a walking stick, and lengthened to a commodious height, gauging instruments as now in use, according to an act of assembly with all other mathematical instruments for sea or land, by wholesale or retail at reasonable rates.

Lamb had served an apprenticeship with Henry Carter, a mathematical instrument maker in London. In July 1724 he became an accomplice of Jack Sheppard, a notorious burglar, and was arrested and sentenced to the gallows in 1724. As he was awaiting execution on the gallows at Tyburn, his sentence was commuted to transportation to Virginia for a period of seven years, inasmuch as this was his first offence. After he had completed his term of seven years in Virginia he moved to Philadelphia, where he opened a shop as an instrument maker and a private school for teaching technical subjects. The curriculum included surveying, navigation, and mathematics. Although his enterprises prospered, he moved to New York. There he married a Miss Ham and established himself in a respectable position. Lamb's first advertisement in New York appeared on January 23, 1749. He died on December 11, 1784, at the age of 81, and two days later he was eulogized in The New York Packet where he was mentioned as "a steady friend to the liberties of America."

John Lamb (1735-1800), Anthony's son, learned and practiced his father's craft for a time and worked as a partner in the firm of A. Lamb & Son. He subsequently became a wine and sugar merchant, achieved considerable wealth, married well, and was accepted by the gentry of the city. He was a firm patriot and from 1765 he was active as the leader of the Sons of Liberty. He served in several major engagements in the American Revolution and in 1783 was brevetted a brigadier-general.

The immigrant instrument makers were not confined to those working in glass, however. One of the earlier immigrant craftsmen was Charles Blundy, a London watchmaker who established himself on Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1753. He notified the public that in addition to watches he sold thermometers of all sizes and types. Presumably his merchandise was imported from England. He was absent from the city between 1753 and 1760 but returned and continued in business in the latter year.

Another pre-Revolution immigrant was Thomas Harland (1735-1807), a clock maker who settled in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1773. It is claimed that he sailed from England on one of the ships carrying the tea destroyed by the Boston Tea Party. Over the course of the years his business prospered to such a degree that he hired from ten to twelve apprentices at one time. Some of the leading American 18th-century clockmakers served apprenticeships with Harland. In 1802 his newspaper notice stated that he had for sale "Surveyors Compasses, with agate centre needles; chains and Protractors ..."

A most interesting instrument that has recently come to light is a brass sundial made in Philadelphia in 1764. The dial, about 10-1/2 inches in diameter, is signed by the maker, "Daniel Jay Philad^a. fecit." It is dated 1764 and inscribed with the name of the person for whom it was made, "James Pemberton." In the center is "Lat. 40," which coincides with the latitude for Philadelphia. The style of the dial is very much in the English tradition of the period, indicating that Jay was probably an emigrant trained in England.

Post-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers

A large proportion of the English craftsmen who came to the American Colonies after the Revolution settled in Philadelphia, There was John Gould for instance, a mathematical instrument maker from London who had opened a shop at 47 Water Street by 1794. He sold nautical, surveying, and optical instruments as well as mirrors, presumably all imported from England. He moved to 70 South Front Street "At the Sign of the Quadrant" in 1796. He was succeeded in business in 1798 by Thomas Whitney, another emigrant from London. Whitney made and sold instruments (see fig. 85) in Gould's former shop, and featured also a vast array of department store merchandise. John Whitney, who may have been his son, was listed at the same address in the Philadelphia directory of 1801 as a "Mathematical Instrument Maker and Optician."

In the Philadelphia directory and register for 1821 Thomas Whitney advertised that he

... presents his sincere thanks to his friends and the public and respectfully soliciting the continuation of their favors, wishes to inform them that he has devoted his attention principally to the making of surveying compasses for 16 years past, and has made 500 of them; the good qualities of which are well known to many surveyors, in at least 16 of the States and Territories of the Union ... [he also makes] many other instruments, protractors, gunner's Calibers and quadrants, etc.

George Evans was another instrument maker who arrived from London after the end of the Revolution. He established himself in a shop at 33 North Front Street in 1796, where he sold imported instruments as well as stationery, Bibles, and cloth. He died in 1798.

Thomas Dring, who migrated from England, settled in Westtown Township of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he was first noted in the tax records of 1786. He married Hanna Griffith, a native of the region, and their son, Jeptha Dring, subsequently was mentioned as a carpenter by trade, and a vagrant by inclination, who could quote Shakespeare from memory. According to local legend, Dring raised money from a number of townspeople for the purpose of purchasing clocks for them in England. He set sail for his homeland in about 1798 and never returned.

Although the tax records for 1796 described Dring as an "Optician" he was also a clockmaker and maker of scientific instruments. At least three of his tall-case clocks have survived, and a stick type of barometer which he made for Edward and Hannah Hicks in 1796. The instrument is now in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society. It measures 39 inches in height, and is signed on the thermometer dial THOMAS DRING/West Chester. This instrument (fig. 14) is one of the very rare barometers produced in America in the 18th century.

Another craftsman who emigrated from England was Robert Clark, who opened a shop at 5-1/2 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1785. In that year he announced himself as a

Math., Optical and Philosophical Instruments maker and Clockmaker from London ... As the Advertiser has lately had an opportunity of working and receiving instruction under the first masters in the above branches in Great Britain, flatters himself that he shall give satisfaction to those who may be pleased to favor him with their orders ... for Surveyors compasses, Quadrants, Telescopes, Microscopes, Spirit Levels, etc.

W. Fosbrook was another craftsman originally from London. He was a cutler and maker of surgical instruments, with a shop in Beekman's Slip in New York City in 1786 or earlier. He specialized in leg irons and rupture trusses, and he made instruments and files for setting the teeth as well as standard items for surgeons.

Several immigrant instrument makers established themselves in Philadelphia during the same period. John Denegan (or Donegan), stated to have been "late from Italy," moved his shop in March 1787 to the corner of Race and Fourth Streets at "the sign of the Seven Stars". There he made barometers and thermometers as well as glasses for philosophical experiments. It seems too much of a coincidence that in October 1787 an instrument maker named Joseph Donegany established a shop at 54 Smith Street in New York City, where--according to an advertisement in the October 17, 1787, issue of The New York Daily Advertiser--he made "thermometers, barometers and sold hydrostatic Bubbles and hygrometers for proving spirits, and also ... glasses for experimental purposes." It is probable that Denegan and Donegany were one and the same; since Denegan was stated to have been of Italian origin, the name may originally have been "De Negani."

Joseph Gatty advertised himself as an "Artist from Italy" with a shop at 341 Pearl Street in New York City where he "made and sold every simple and compound form of barometer and thermometer as well as curious Hygrometers for assaying spirits which show the actual strength with the greatest precision and are not liable to be corroded, in addition to several new Philosophical Instruments of his own invention, and all types of artificial fireworks." By 1796 Gatty (or Gatti?) had moved to Philadelphia where he had a shop at 79 South Front Street and advertised the same items that had appeared in his advertisements in New York. The Philadelphia directory for 1800 listed Gatty as a "Weather Glass Maker."

Native American Makers

Comparatively speaking, the greater proportion of the early American instrument makers were native born. Among these were to be found a substantial number of artisans trained as clockmakers who subsequently produced scientific instruments to meet the surveying and nautical needs of their communities. Together with the other craftsmen throughout the colonies who established and advertised themselves specifically as instrument makers, they produced a large number of the mathematical instruments used in the American Colonies in the 18th century. A careful study of their regional distribution reveals that most of them were concentrated in the major coastal cities of commerce.