New England holds a special place in the history of American horology. From the colonial era through the early industrial age, the region's craftsmen turned clockmaking from an exclusive luxury into something ordinary households could afford.
Colonial craftsmen, including Rhode Island's own
Before factories, clocks were made one at a time by individual craftsmen. Rhode Island was part of that story. William Claggett (1696–1749) worked in Newport, and one of his tall case clocks, made around 1730–1740, is in the collection of the RISD Museum in Providence.
In Connecticut, the English-trained Thomas Harland arrived in Norwich in 1773, repairing watches and making clock movements. His apprentice Daniel Burnap made tall clock movements in South Windsor, and Burnap in turn trained a young Eli Terry.
Eli Terry and the Porter Contract
Terry set up shop in what is now Plymouth, Connecticut, making clocks with wooden and brass parts. By 1806 he had refined his wooden movement and was cutting gear teeth with water-powered saws. In 1807 he agreed to produce 4,000 tall case clock movements for Edward and Levi Porter of Waterbury within three years, an almost unthinkable number at the time.
To meet it, Terry redesigned his workshop and his methods, and he delivered. ConnecticutHistory.org describes the Porter Contract as the first successful large-scale production of a complicated mechanism with truly interchangeable parts, an early milestone of American industry. Terry went on to design a wooden movement small enough for a shelf or mantel, which cut the cost of both the movement and the case.
A lasting legacy
Terry's apprentices and successors, including Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley, helped turn Connecticut clockmaking into a full industry. Its traditions of precision manufacturing, apprenticeship and craftsmanship still shape American horology. Many of these clocks are still ticking in New England homes, and museums across the region preserve the story.