[BITList] On watch at sea

[John Feltham]

To read this Life of the Day complete with a picture of the subject,
visit http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2013-11-21



Mudge,  Thomas  (1715/16-1794), horologist, second son of Zachariah Mudge  (1694-1769), headmaster and clergyman, and his first wife, Mary Fox (d. in or before 1762), was, almost certainly, born at Exeter in late 1715 or early 1716. Soon after his birth his father became master of the grammar school at Bideford, and there Thomas received his early education. On 4 May 1730 his father bound him apprentice to George Graham, successor to Thomas Tompion, the eminent watchmaker of Water Lane, Fleet Street, London. Graham formed a very high estimate of his pupil's ability. On gaining his freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in 1738 Mudge took lodgings and continued to work privately for some years. One of the most famous watchmakers of the time for whom he worked was John Ellicott. When the latter was requested to supply Ferdinand VI of Spain with an equation watch, Mudge was entrusted with the construction of the instrument, although Ellicott's name was attached to it when finished, in accordance with the usual practice. Subsequently, when explaining the action of the watch to some men of science, Ellicott had the misfortune to injure it and, being unable to repair the damage himself, he had to return it to Mudge. This story reached the ears of the Spanish king, who had a passion for mechanical inventions, and he gave Mudge an open commission to construct elaborate and complicated watches. One of these was made to fit the end of a cane. It struck the hours and quarters, repeated the quarters at will, and had an alarm mechanism. The motions of the wheels at the time of striking were revealed by small sliding shutters. The king is reported to have constantly spoken admiringly of the maker.

In 1750 Mudge took premises at 151 Fleet Street and, on 18 November, two days after the death of his former master, George Graham, began to advertise for work. On 27 October 1753 he married Abigail Hopkins of Oxford, who died in 1789. They had two sons. During this period Mudge formed an association with a former fellow apprentice, William Dutton, which led to a partnership by the early 1760s, with both names appearing on their productions. The firm is known to have supplied Dr Johnson's first watch in 1768 and to have constructed a fine watch with temperature compensation for John Smeaton. Mudge also prepared a longitude timekeeper for the young Swiss astronomer Johan Jacob Huber, incorporating Huber's idea of a constant force escapement.

In the late 1760s Mudge became acquainted with Count von Bruhl, ambassador-extraordinary from the court of Saxony, who henceforth became a most enthusiastic and supportive patron. This association led, in 1770, to George III's purchase of a gold watch incorporating Mudge's invention of a detached lever escapement; presented to Queen Charlotte and known as 'the queen's watch', it later became part of the Royal Collection. The escapement, which was first applied by Mudge to a clock in the 1750s, remains in use as the best that can be fitted to mechanical watches.

In 1765, Mudge, who was at that time acting as an expert for the board of longitude, published Thoughts on the Means of Improving Watches, and Particularly those for the Use of the Sea. In 1771 he quitted active business due to ill health and retired to Plymouth to be with his brother, Dr John Mudge. (His brother Richard Mudge, the composer, had died in 1763.) This allowed him to devote all his time and attention to the improvement of chronometers designed to determine, with the aid of the sextant, the longitude at sea. The government, through the agency of the board of longitude, had encouraged the improvement of timekeepers for this purpose, and in 1714 had offered a reward of £20,000 for a method that could determine the longitude within 30 geographical miles; if within 60 geographical miles, half the reward was offered. John Harrison (1693-1776) ultimately obtained the larger reward in 1773 for the performance of his fourth timekeeper. Further rewards were then offered for a more perfect method, and Mudge felt confident that he could attain the degree of exactness required. In 1776 he was appointed watchmaker to the king, and in the same year he completed his first marine chronometer. He submitted it to Dr Hornby, Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, who tested it, with satisfactory results. It was then committed to Nevil Maskelyne, astronomer royal, for extended tests at the observatory (1776-7). This chronometer was later housed at the British Museum. The board of longitude in the meantime gave Mudge 500 guineas, and urged him to make another watch in order to qualify for the government's rewards, the terms of which required the construction of two watches of the specified accuracy. Mudge forthwith set about making two more timekeepers, which were so alike that he gave them different coloured shagreen-covered cases, giving rise to their being called 'green' and 'blue'. These were submitted to the same rigorous tests as the first but, like the first, they were described by the astronomer royal as not having satisfied the terms of the reward. In the controversy which followed it was claimed that Maskelyne had not given the timekeepers a fair trial, and that they had gone better in other hands both before and after the period during which they had been under his observation. Mudge's case was strongly urged in a pamphlet issued by his elder son, Thomas Mudge, entitled A narrative of facts relating to some timekeepers constructed by Mr. T. Mudge for the discovery of the longitude at sea, together with observations upon the conduct of the astronomer royal respecting them (1792). Maskelyne retorted in An answer to a pamphlet entitled A narrative of facts ... wherein ... the conduct of the astronomer royal is vindicated from Mr. Mudge's misrepresentations (1792), and the controversy closed with the younger Mudge's Reply to the answer ... to which is added ... some remarks on some passages in Dr. Maskelyne's answer by his excellency the Count de Bruhl (1792). Mudge was supported throughout by F. X. De Zach, astronomer to the duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who had observed the variations of the first of Mudge's chronometers for two years, and by Admiral John Campbell, who carried the chronometer on voyages to Newfoundland in 1785 and 1786 respectively. This chronometer was afterwards stated by the younger Thomas Mudge to vary less than half a second in 24 hours. Harrison had previously entertained similar grievances against Maskelyne and the board of longitude, believing that the astronomer royal favoured a scheme of his own for finding the longitude by lunar tables which disposed him to apply overly rigorous tests to the chronometers.

In June 1791 Mudge's son presented to the board of longitude a memorial, stating that although his father's timekeepers during the time of the public trial had not been adjudged to go within the limits defined for reward, yet as they were superior to any hitherto invented, and were constructed on such principles as would render them permanently useful, the board would be justified in exercising its powers to give him some financial recognition of his labours. The memorial proved unsuccessful, so he carried a petition to the same effect to the House of Commons, and a committee was appointed, consisting of Pitt, Wyndham, Bathurst, and Lord Minto, to consider the value of Mudge's invention. The committee, having been assisted by various eminent watchmakers and men of science, finally voted Mudge the sum of £2500. He died two years after receiving this reward at Thomas's house at Newington Butts, Surrey, on 14 November 1794. He was buried on 21 November at St Dunstan-in-the-West, London. His younger son, John (1763-1847), was on the recommendation of Queen Charlotte, presented to the living of Brampford Speke, near Exeter, by the lord chancellor in 1791.

A fine portrait of Thomas Mudge the elder, later in the possession of the Science Museum, London, was painted for Count Bruhl by Nathaniel Dance, and was later engraved by both Charles Townley and L. Schiavonetti. It shows a face which is remarkable for its look of patient intelligence and integrity.

Thomas Seccombe 

David Penney 

Sources  T. Mudge, A description, with plates, of the time-keeper invented by the late Thomas Mudge (1799) + Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, 97 (1795), 41-7 + S. R. Flint, ed., Mudge memoirs (1883) + 'Report of the select committee of the House of Commons to whom it was referred to consider of the report which was made from the committee to whom the petition of Thomas Mudge, watch-maker, was referred', JHC, 48 (1792-3), 877-920 + R. Good and others, Pioneers of precision timekeeping (1965) + C. Allix, 'Thomas Mudge, clock, watch and chronometer maker', Apollo Miscellany (June 1950), 1-8 + G. Daniels, 'Thomas Mudge, the complete horologist', Antiquarian Horology and the Proceedings of the Antiquarian Horological Society, 13 (1981-2) + T. Mudge jun., A narrative of facts ... (1791) + N. Maskelyne, An answer to 'A narrative of facts' ... (1792) + T. Mudge jun., A reply to 'An answer ...' (1792) + parish registers, St Dunstan-in-the-West and St Mary Magdalene, Fish Street, GL
Archives BM + Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Dresden, Germany + Royal Collection + Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois | NMM + priv. colls.
Likenesses  N. Dance, oils, in or before 1772, Sci. Mus. [see illus.] · C. Townley, mezzotint, 1772 (after N. Dance), BM · Baker, engraving, 1795 (after N. Dance), repro. in Universal Magazine, 311 · L. Schiavonetti, engraving, 1799 (after N. Dance), repro. in Mudge, A description with plates, frontispiece · oils (after N. Dance), Guildhall, Clockmakers' Company Museum




ooroo

The palest ink is more reliable than the strongest memory.

Chinese Proverb.




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