John Harrison did not long survive the settlement of his claims; for he died on the 24th of March, 1776, at the age of eighty-three. He was buried at the south-west corner of Hampstead parish churchyard, where a tombstone was erected to his memory, and an inscription placed upon it commemorating his services. His wife survived him only a year; she died at seventy-two, and was buried in the same tomb. His son, William Harrison, F.R.S., a deputy-lientenant of the counties of Monmouth and Middlesex, died in 1815, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and was also interred there. The tomb having stood for more than a century, became somewhat dilapidated; when the Clock-makers' Company of the City of London took steps in 1879 to reconstruct it, and recut the inscriptions. An appropriate ceremony took place at the final uncovering of the tomb.
But perhaps the most interesting works connected with John Harrison and the great labour of his life, are the wooden clock at the South Kensington Museum, and the four chronometers made by him for the Government, which are still preserved at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The three early ones are of great weight, and can scarcely be moved without some bodily labour. But the fourth, the marine chronometer or watch, is of small dimensions, and is easily handled. It still possesses the power of going accurately; as does "Mr. Kendal's watch," which was made exactly after it. These will always prove the best memorials of this distinguished workman.
Before concluding this brief notice of the life and labours of John Harrison, it becomes me to thank most cordially Mr. Christie, Astronomer-Royal, for his kindness in exhibiting the various chronometers deposited at the Greenwich Observatory, and for his permission to inspect the minutes of the Board of Longitude, where the various interviews between the inventor and the commissioners, extending over many years, are faithfully but too procrastinatingly recorded. It may be finally said of John Harrison, that by his invention of the chronometer—the ever-sleepless and ever-trusty friend of the mariner—he conferred an incalculable benefit on science and navigation, and established his claim to be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind.
POstscript.—In addition to the information contained in this chapter, I have been recently informed by the Rev. Mr. Sankey, vicar of Wragby, that the family is quite extinct in the parish, except the wife of a plumber, who claims relationship with Harrison. The representative of the Winn family was created Lord St. Oswald in 1885. Harrison is not quite forgotten at Foulby. The house in which he was born was a low thatched cottage, with two rooms, one used as a living room, and the other as a sleeping room. The house was pulled down about forty years ago; but the entrance door, being of strong, hard wood, is still preserved. The vicar adds that young Harrison would lie out on the grass all night in summer time, studying the details of his wooden clock.
Footnotes to Chapter III.
[1] Originally published in Longmam's Magazine, but now rewritten and enlarged.
[2] Popular Astronomy. By Simon Newcomb, LL.D., Professor U.S. Naval Observatory.
[3] Biographia Britannica, vol. vi. part 2, p. 4375. This volume was published in 1766, before the final reward had been granted to Harrison.
[4] This clock is in the possession of Abraham Riley, of Bromley, near Leeds. He informs us that the clock is made of wood throughout, excepting the escapement and the dial, which are made of brass. It bears the mark of "John Harrison, 1713."
[5] Harrison's compensation pendulum was afterwards improved by Arnold, Earnshaw, and other English makers. Dent's prismatic balance is now considered the best.