Henry H. Ham Jr. Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Henry H. Ham Jr. was born on October 7, 1842. His parents were Henry Horatio Ham (b. 1814- d 1843) and Eliza Darling (Moses) Ham (b. Nov. 19, 1838 – d. May 27, 1919.). Henry was born into a family involved with watches and jewelry making. Henry's father was a watch and clockmaker who had a shop in the Exchange Building on Pleasant Street opposite the old Post Office and Customs House.

During the Civil War, Henry Ham served in the 1st Regiment, New Hampshire Heavy Artillery.

Henry Jr was industrious and worked at 51 Maplewood Avenue in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was involved with several trades. He worked as a watchmaker. He may have worked in his grandfather's Supply Ham's (1788-1862) store. This shop worked with silver, repaired watches, and sold jewelry until it closed sometime around 1877. A copper engraving plate used to print Henry Jr.'s business cards has survived. It is currently in the collection of the Portsmouth Athenaeum. It advertises Henry as a Portsmouth watchmaker at Court Street's No. 2 Exchange Building.

Henry applied for and received at least four patents. The first was granted in 1870 for a shutterdog. A shutterdog is a device that secures shutters onto a building.

On April 8, 1879, a second patent was granted to Henry for the design of a cylindrical mechanical weighing calculator for weighing scales. A tin cylinder with japanned numerals under a celluloid viewing window would record the object's weight. A small knob on the right side of the cylinder is used to reset the inner cylinder.

A third patent, Patent No. 215057, 9, filed on October 2, 1878, was granted on May 6, 1879. This patent was granted for an improvement in Ship's Bells indicating clocks. His invention improved the class of marine clocks, usually called ship's watch-clocks, causing them to strike the bells indicating the hours and half-hours of each watch, with pauses between the blows. The mechanism replicates the sound sequence, most notably the appropriate pauses performed by hand. The ship's bell sequence or military time aboard a ship marks each half hour of time. A ship's clock will strike one blow for every half-hour of time during a four-hour watch. A day is twenty-four hours long. Under this system, it is divided into six equal periods of four hours. It is customary to strike one bell at the termination of the first half hour, usually 12:30, 4:30, and 8:30. At the next half hour, the clock will strike two bells. At the third half hour, a ship's clock will strike two bells, pause, and then strike once more. At the second hour, two blows, then a pause, then two more blows. The sequence repeats until a complete cycle of eight blows is sounded. It is the pause between the hours that is difficult to replicate mechanically.

This patented mechanism is occasionally found in a Marine lever that Ham produced in very limited numbers. The movements of these clocks were first manufactured for Ham by The E. N. Welch MFG Company in Forestville, Connecticut. The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors has a slightly later example in their museum collection. Their clock features the same dial information that pays homage to the 1879 Patent.

The NAWCC model differs from the earlier version in that it has a label on the back of its case that reads: "Ham's / Ship Bell Clock / . . . / With new fine movement adjusted to strike "The Bells" / The hands may be turned backward to conform to the daily changes in Latitude and / Longitude Without interfering with the Strike. / Great care has been taken to make this movement perfect in every / particular so that the purchaser may rely on it's running well and striking correctly." The change of being able to move the hands without interfering with the strike does not seem to have been patented. A third version is in The New Hampshire Historical Society Collection. This clock was made by the Seth Thomas Clock Company and is housed in a wooden case.

On December 27, 1881, a fourth patent was granted to Henry for the design of suspending the pendulum in a pendulum clock. It is Patent No. 251,360.

In 1883, Henry charged the Portsmouth Fire Department 1.50 to repair their clock.

In 1894, Henry may have been working at the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard. A Boston Herald article written on Sunday, February 16, 1936, discusses the Howard timepiece tower clock installed in the Navy Yard's administration building. The article was written by Jack (Alva?) Frost. He was an apprentice of Henry Hams while working in the Steam Engineering Shop. This clock was improved in 1894, the last year of Frost's apprenticeship. Ham convinced the base commandant to install his patent ship's bell strike train onto the existing Howard movement. An appropriation was granted from Washington, and Frost converted the 30-hour Howard to an eight-day clock that incorporated Hams, 1879 striking patent. At the time, they believed this clock was the only tower clock in the world that struck the ship's bell sequence.

One of Henry's day books survives from 1899. It is currently at The Portsmouth Athenaeum. An entry of interest to clock collectors is a section that contains the mathematical calculations and drawings for a Tide and Moon Clock. Included in the notes is a description and explanation of the clock. When Ham designed this, he was located at 51 Maplewood Avenue. We have yet to locate an example of this device.

Henry Ham Jr married Eliza J. Seeley (Lisa), daughter of Richard Seeley and Lydia Darton. They had one child they named Richard H Ham (b 4-8-1884 d. 1-25-1941).

Henry Jr died on September 21, 1914. He is buried in the South Street Cemetary in Portsmouth, NH.