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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Barton-in-the-Beans, Leicestershire, England · 1746 – 1816

Samuel Deacon

Partially verified

Provincial longcase and turret clockmaking

Life & work

Samuel Deacon was a rural English clockmaker who ran a workshop in the small Leicestershire hamlet of Barton-in-the-Beans (also recorded as Barton) from about 1771–72, exemplifying the large but poorly documented population of provincial English makers who worked entirely outside London's Clerkenwell trade. He is unusual among such makers in that his life is comparatively well recorded, but for a reason unconnected to clockmaking: he was also, for thirty-seven years, minister of the Barton General Baptist chapel, and biographical memoirs of him were published after his death focusing on his religious ministry as much as his trade.

Deacon built up what near-contemporary sources describe as a considerable clock and watchmaking business, apparently combining his craft with unpaid religious ministry and taking no salary as pastor while supporting himself through the workshop. As with most English provincial makers, no comprehensive catalogue of his output or serial numbering scheme is established in the literature consulted here.

The 'Deacon family of Leicestershire clockmakers' has been the subject of specialist Antiquarian Horology research; readers should be aware that this encyclopedia's brief entry summarises the general outline rather than the fine genealogical and production detail available in that specialist literature.

Training, contributions & innovations

  • Represents the large, loosely documented tier of English provincial (as opposed to London) clock and watchmakers active in the later eighteenth century
  • Combined a substantial rural clockmaking trade with an unpaid ministry, an unusually well-documented combination for a provincial maker of this period

Inventions & patents

  • No invention or patent specific to Samuel Deacon is recorded in the sources consulted here; provincial makers of his type typically built conventional longcase and turret clock movements rather than pursuing novel mechanisms.

Signatures & markings on surviving work

  • Longcase clock dials from this workshop are typically signed 'Sam. Deacon, Barton' or a close variant; exact signature forms should be checked against surviving dated examples rather than assumed uniform.

Collecting significance

Deacon longcase clocks are a modest but genuine English provincial collecting category, generally valued well below London-made equivalents; because biographical interest in Deacon derives substantially from religious-history sources rather than horological catalogues, collectors should consult specialist Leicestershire clockmaking research (noted in sources) for production dating rather than relying on generic price guides.

Related photographs

Clock-watch MET 39989
Clock-watch MET 39989 — Unattributed Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Clock-watch MET 40473
Clock-watch MET 40473 — Creator:David Terrier, CC0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Clock watch MET DP351934
Clock watch MET DP351934 — Unattributed Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Green, J. (ed. Cook, T.), Preacher, Pastor, Mechanic: Memoir of the Late Mr. Samuel Deacon (1888)
  2. Hewitt, P. A., 'The Deacon Family of Leicestershire Clockmakers,' Antiquarian Horology (Sept. 1986)
  3. Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers (general context on English provincial clockmaking)

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.