Samuel Rogers of Plymouth and Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Samuel Rogers was born in 1766 and died in East Bridgewater, MA, on July 17, 1838. He was the older brother of Isaac Rogers Jr., who worked in Marshfield, Mass, as a clockmaker and the cousin of the Bridgewater clockmaker Ezekiel Reed. It is thought that Samuel was trained under the Hanover clockmaker John Bailey II, who was also a Quaker. Soon after he finished his apprenticeship with Bailey in 1788, Samuel moved to Bridgewater, MA. Here, he demonstrated that he was an ingenious clockmaker and inventor. Here, he became involved with nail making and applied for and received three patents for designs of nail-cutting machines or metal working machines. In 1804, he moved his family to Plymouth and worked as a clockmaker. Here, he came up with a very unusual method of powering a shelf clock by designing what may be the first use of a “wagon spring” or torsion spring movement. Three such shelf clocks are known. In 1808, he returned to Bridgewater. Tall case clocks, dwarf clocks, and shelf clocks are known.