Thomas Mudge

Thomas Mudge was born in Exeter, son of the schoolmaster and clergyman Zachariah Mudge, and grew up in Bideford.^1, 2

At fourteen he was apprenticed to George Graham in Fleet Street, and he was admitted a free clockmaker on 15 January 1738.^1, 2

He worked for the retailer John Ellicott, and when it emerged that Mudge had made an equation watch sold to Ferdinand VI of Spain, the king commissioned him directly.^1, 2

One of his watches for Ferdinand, No. 260, sold on 22 August 1755, has a remontoir, a jumping minute hand and a second hairspring as a temperature-compensation curb.⁵

He went into partnership with his fellow apprentice William Dutton; RMG holds a Mudge and Dutton cylinder movement of about 1765.^1, 6

He devised the detached lever escapement; Wikipedia says he applied it to a clock before a watch, and the dates given range from 1750 to 1755.^2, 3, 7

Queen Charlotte's gold watch of 1770 is the earliest known lever watch, by the Royal Collection's account.^1, 3

Count von Brühl, the Saxon envoy in London, was his patron from 1760, and Mudge's letters to him were published by his son in 1799.^1, 3

In 1765 he published Thoughts on the Means of Improving Watches, and more particularly those for the Use of the Sea.^1, 2

He retired to Plymouth about 1770-71 to work on marine timekeepers and was appointed watchmaker to the king in 1776.^1, 2

The Board of Longitude paid him 500 guineas for one timekeeper, but Maskelyne judged his next two, the ‘green’ and ‘blue’, unsatisfactory, and a bitter controversy followed.^1, 2

A House of Commons committee voted him £2,500 against the Board's view; the DNB and Wikipedia date the award 1792 or 1793.^1, 2

He died on 14 November 1794 at his son's house in south London.^1, 2