Thomas Tompion

Thomas Tompion was born in 1639 at Northill in Bedfordshire, the son of a blacksmith; the DNB notes that the parish registers do not begin until 1672, so the place rests on tradition.^1, 2, 6

He was apprenticed to a London clockmaker in 1664 and made free of the Clockmakers' Company on 4 September 1671.^1, 2

The Clockmakers’ Museum holds a fusee verge movement by him of about 1671, from before the balance spring.⁷

Robert Hooke was his early patron, and through Hooke he gained royal work, including the clocks for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1676.^2, 6

In 1675 he made balance-spring watches under Hooke's direction, one for Charles II.^1, 2, 8

Wikipedia says he kept the fusee in his spring-balance watches, and that the fusee watch with a spiral-sprung balance became the English standard.²

He numbered his watches and clocks; a signed but unnumbered movement is dated before about 1680 by the Clockmakers' Museum, and Graham continued the numbering.^2, 3

Wikipedia credits his workshop with about 5,500 watches and 650 clocks, and says many of his workmen were Huguenots.²

The DNB says he patented a cylinder escapement in 1695 with William Houghton and Edward Barlow; others credit him or Graham with the cylinder.^1, 10

He was Master of the Clockmakers' Company in 1704 and, with Quare and Windmills, complained of Amsterdam makers putting their names on foreign work.^1, 11

His partners were Edward Banger (from 1701) and then George Graham, husband of his niece Elizabeth, who inherited the business.^1, 2, 4

He died on 20 November 1713 and was buried in Westminster Abbey; Graham joined him in the same grave in 1751.^1, 6