Memorial in St-John-in-Hampstead Church, Hampstead, London commemorating John Harrison, inventor of the marine chronometer, d. 1776 and William Harrison FRS, d. 1815
Location
St-John-in-Hampstead Church, Hampstead, London, England
Transcript
On the North side:
In Memory of MR JOHN HARRISON, late of Red-Lion Square, LONDON / INVENTOR of the TIME-KEEPER for ascertaining the LONGITUDE at Sea. / He was Born at Foulby, in the County of York, and was the Son of a Builder at / that Place, who brought him up to the same Profession. / Before he attained the Age of 21, He without any Instruction employed himself / in cleaning & repairing Clocks & Watches & made a few of the former chiefly of Wood. / At the Age of 25 He employed his Whole Time in Chronometrical Improvements / He was the Inventor of the Gridiron Pendulum and the Method of preventing the Effect / of Heat and Cold upon Time keepers by Two Bars of different Metals fixed together, / He introduced the Secondary Spring to keep them going while winding up, and was / the Inventor of most (or all) of the Improvements in Clocks & Watches during his Time / In the Year 1735, his first Time keeper was sent to Lisbon, and in 1764, his then much / Improved fourth Time keeper having been sent to Barbadoes, the Commissioners of / Longitude certified that it had determined the Longitude within one Third of Half a / Degree of a great Circle having erred not more than 40 Seconds in Time. / After near sixty Years close Application to the above Pursuits, he departed this Life on the 24th Day of March 1776, Aged 83. / MRS ELIZABETH HARRISON. Wife of the above MR JOHN HARRISON, departed this Life March 5 1777, Aged 72.
On the South side:
And to his son / WILLIAM HARRISON F.R.S. born 1728 at Barrow-on- / Humber, died 1815. He was the custodian of his / father’s prize-winning watch H.4. during the vital / official trials at sea to Jamaica in 1761 and to / Barbados in 1764. He also actively helped his / father in the long and difficult negotiations with / the Board of Longitude and Parliament when claiming / the £20,000 prize. For many years he was a / prominent / Governor of the Foundling Hospital / teaching music to the children and was appointed / High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1791.
Top of Tomb reads: RECONSTRUCTED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF / CLOCKMAKERS OF THE CITY OF LONDON, 1879, WILLIAM PARKER MASTER
Details
Type: Chest tomb
Materials: Portland stone
People
Age: 83
Date of Death: 24/3/1776
Cause of Death: Unknown
Rank / Occupation: Inventor
Organisation: Unknown
Harrison, William
Age: 87
Date of Death: 1815
Cause of Death: Unknown
Rank / Occupation: Scientific Instrument Maker
Organisation: Unknown
Extra
William Harrison tested the chronometers on their sea voyages to Jamaica and Barbados.
Memorial stone also in Westminster Abbey ‘JOHN ‘LONGITUDE’ HARRISON CLOCKMAKER 1693 1776. Stone was unveiled on 24th March 2006 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
Photographer: Helen Payne, 2019