Edward Duffield

Edward Duffield was both one of Philadelphia's most prominent clockmakers as well as most prominent citizens. Born in 1720 outside Philadelphia in Lower Dublin Township, Philadelphia County, Duffield established himself as a watch and clockmaker early in the 1740s. Duffield advertised only sporadically in the Pennsylvania Gazette between 1765 and 1775; perhaps Duffield's best advertisement, however, and the reason that so few notices of his talents exist, was the public clock he made which hung outside his shop after the late 1740s. In addition to his work as a watch and clockmaker, Duffield also succeeded Thomas Stretch as Keeper of the State House clock for 13 years before being succeeded himself by David Rittenhouse. His public-spiritedness and patriotism was well-noted in its day: not only was he petitioned by local silversmiths in 1767 to be named an asseyor, he was jailed during England's occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution, and he was named one of several executors of Benjamin Franklin's estate. Upon his own death in 1801, Duffield's personal wealth was valued at the considerable sum of $22,774.22, excluding the value of his real estate.

Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez, both of whom are known to have carved for Philadelphia's most prominent cabinetmakers might have been the makers of the clock cases.

Edward Duffield, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, was born in Philadelphia in 1720 and made clocks and watches there between 1741 and 1747. Duffield sheltered Franklin’s family at Benefield during the British occupation of Philadelphia. In 1779 Sarah Franklin Bache wrote to her father in Paris of Mrs Duffield’s kindness, concluding that: “ I think myself luck to have had such a friend: Franklin so esteemed his friendship with Duffield that he appointed him one of the executors of his estate.

Benjamin Franklin requested that Edward Duffield make a clock for the public, which hung outside Duffields shop from the 1740’s until the Revolutionary War. From 1762 to 1775 Duffield was appointed Keeper of the Clock in Philadelphia in recognition of his skills as a clockmaker. This was indeed an honor in a city well respected for its men of letters and sciences as well as its artisans.

Duffield also engraved the dies for the first Indian peace medal in America, struck in 1757 by his fellow Library Shareholder, Joseph Richardson Sr (1711-1784), Philadelphia’s pre-eminent silversmith.