John Bailey III or Jr. of Hanover and New Bedford, Massachusetts.

John Bailey III, or Junior, was born in Hanover, Massachusetts, on August 13, 1787. It is thought that he learned the family trade of clockmaking from his father, John II. John III finished his apprenticeship in 1809 at the tail end of the tall case clock's popularity. The wall timepiece and shelf clock became the clock of choice due to their reduction in cost. In June of 1809, he moved to Portland, Maine, and worked mainly as a repairman. In November of 1810, he married Anna Taber, the daughter of a prominent Quaker merchant in Portland. In 1811, they returned to Hanover. During this next period of his life, we find him traveling in the South during the winters, setting up temporary repair shops, and shipping complete clocks from the North to Southern clients while maintaining a shop in Hanover. In 1824, he moved his business from Hanover to the growing city of New Bedford, which is located on the Massachusetts south coast. Here he took the shop formerly occupied by the clockmakers Almy & Wall. In addition to his reputation as a fine businessman, clockmaker, and chronometer repairman, Bailey became well-known for his Anti-slavery convictions. He traveled extensively, including to the South, to preach his message of abolitionism. This was a stance that eventually cost him his business in New Bedford. In 1848, he moved to Lynn, MA, where he operated "The Old Curiosity Shop," a jewelry and repair business on Union Street. He died there in 1883 on March 2. Over his lifetime, he saw the cost of a clock start at $60 and fall to $2 due to the gearing up of mass production methods. Clocks were no longer for the most affluent of a community.

Over the years, we have owned a fair number of clocks made by him. Some of these included numerous tall case clocks, dwarf clocks, and wall timepieces.