Joseph Pope – Boston and Roxbury, MA and Hallowell, ME – Clockmaker, watchmaker, and instrument maker. A mathematician and mechanical genius. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Joseph Pope – Boston and Roxbury, MA and Hallowell, ME – Clockmaker, watchmaker, and instrument maker. A mathematician and mechanical genius. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Joseph Pope was born on Hollis Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 19, 1748. His parents were Robert Pope (1717-1776), a blacksmith and scythe maker, and Phoebe (Brown) Pope (1716- ). Joseph may be one of twelve children. He did have a younger brother Robert Pope (b1754-d1793), who was also a clockmaker that worked in Boston.

Joseph Pope first married Ruthy Thayer, daughter of a Tallow-Chandler (a candlemaker), on February 4, 1773. She died two years later, on August 22, 1775, at the home of Ebenezer Thayer Jr's house in Braintree. She was 20 years and 6 months old. The couple evacuated there during the siege of Boston, which began on April 19, 1775. They had at least one daughter before she died. Joseph next married Elizabeth (Pierpoint) Pope on May 3, 1787, in Boston. They had one daughter named Elisa and a son named Robert from 1794-1870. Elizabeth died at age 77 in Hallowell, Maine.

Joseph Pope is listed in a number of horological references as a clock and watchmaker working in Boston from about 1772 through 1810. Currently, it is not known from whom he was trained. Two sources suggest that he was trained in Maryland. The first is in The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County ..., Volume 4, edited by Justin Winsor on page 501. The second source is a hand written note in a Tall clock that Harvard College now owns. They refer to it as the “Murdock Clock.” It is my assumption, that this note may have been transcribed from the first source. To further confuse the issue, an article published in the Boston Evening Transcript on December 3, 1857, states he was trained as a watchmaker in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, both references does not mention under whom he apprenticed. In any event, we know that he returned to Boston by 1772, when Joseph placed an ad (in a Boston Newspaper) announcing that several watches were stolen from his shop. This ad confirms he worked in Boston's South-end as a watchmaker before the American revolution.

(It has been stated in numerous Horological references that Joseph advertised in 1780 that he returned from London and was carrying on his Clock and watchmaking business on Marlborough Street. I believe this ad has been misread. And that the date of the ad was 1790.) Joseph later became well-known in the Boston scientific community as early as 1785. On January 26 of the year, he is listed as a member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. Over the next few years, he presented several papers to the organization. On November 14, 1787, at a Meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences held at the University in Cambridge, MA. Joseph presented "Remarks upon the causes of the libration of the Earth's axis, procession of the Equinoxes and the Antecedentia of the Poles." On January 30, 1788, Joseph presented at a Meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Hall of the Massachusetts Bank, "Remarks & Strictures on Sir Isaac Newton's theory of tides, Observations upon the Powers of Attraction & Impulsion, and Observations on the increase of the equatorial diameter." Joseph was re-elected to the Academy on August 20, 1788. [Minutes of the Academy Volume 01 Part 1, 1780-1791.]

Joseph Pope is best known today for constructing an orrery. This orrery is currently part of Harvard University's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Such contrivances were regarded in their day as miracles of mechanical skill and astronomical learning. Even to this day, it remains an important example of an early American astronomical apparatus. The orrery's design was founded on the principles put forth by the celebrated philosopher James Ferguson. Ferguson was a natural philosopher, an inventor of astronomical instruments, and a painter of miniatures. One of the several books he wrote was "Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles and Made Easy for Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics." Joseph also consulted Dr. George Waterhouse, who shared his astronomical interests and had attended a Lecture that Ferguson had given in London. [Waterhouse – Boston Patriot and Dailey Chronicle September 9, 1826.]

Joseph spent a reported 12 years constructing the "first orrery made in America." (This claim is a bit of a stretch because we now know that David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia had completed an orrery that he built in about 1770.) Rittenhouse's instrument still survives and is currently located at the Princeton University of Art.) Joseph Pope completed his orrery in 1787. This gigantic gear-driven orrery measures 6.5 feet in diameter and is 6 feet tall.

It was designed to show the Sun, Mars, Venus, Earth, and its moon Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and all the known moons of those planets and Saturn's rings. Halfway through this project, Uranus was discovered (in 1781). Joseph did not include this new planet in his orrery design. The case of the orrery is constructed in mahogany and glass. Each of the twelve corners of the grand orrery is fitted with a brass figure the likeness of one of three prominent historical figures: Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and James Bowdoin. Bowdoin was then the Governor of Massachusetts and also the President of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. Waterhouse suggested to Pope that he include Bowdoin's likeness. He thought it best to patronize him. The Boston ship carvers Simeon Skillings, Jr. and John Skillings of the North-end carved the wooden figures. The American Patriot Paul Revere took those wooden molds and cast them in brass. Twelve glass panels make up the dome-shaped top of the cabinet. The observer can peer down and into the recreated solar system. Glass side panels in the cabinet encourage one to bend down and view the internal workings of the mechanics.

In 1786, Joseph advertised as having a shop on Orange Street in Boston's South-end. A Manuscript map of the 1787 fire of Boston is in the MHS Collections and depicts Pope's house on Orange street at the corner of Hollis Street.

On April 20, 1787, a major fire consumed most of Boston's South-end. The fire almost ruined Joseph's business. It consumed his house and, if it were not for Mr. Waterhouse, many of his possessions. Mr. Waterhouse recalls that day that he was on Beacon Hill dining with Governor Bowdoin at his home. Because Bowdoin's house was elevated, the two men saw the smoke and flames of the fire before the alarms were sounded. Waterhouse responded to the scene and thought of Popes Orrery. He went to Pope's house to find that he was the only one there. The others were occupied by the fire which was in the vicinity. He gathered several men as Joseph returned. The fire was getting closer every minute. They proceeded to remove the orrery from the second story of his house. With difficulty, the orrery was brought down the stairs. Mr. Pope himself had to break away the balusters and push onto the meridian plates so the large instrument could fit down the stairway. The men transported it to a nearby field and covered it with rugs to protect it from airborne embers. It was soon taken temporarily to the governor's house on Beacon Hill. While at the governor's home, the orrery was put on view to the public. It was visited by hundreds a day and admired by all who viewed it.

Six weeks later on May 24, 1787, in the Independent Chronicle, Pope advertised "Joseph & Robert Pope / (burnt out in the late fire) / informed their Friends and Customers, they have taken a Shop in Newbury-Street, nearly opposite Rowe's-Lane, where the Watch and Clock Business, & c. is carried on as usual." Joseph is then reported to have lived on Essex Street. [The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County ..., Volume 4edited by Justin Winsor]

On August 22, 1787, At a Meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, at the University in Cambridge, a committee that was appointed on April 1, 1787, to examine machines was directed to inspect the orrery and report the results of the inspection. Their remarks were presented on November 14, 1787, At a Meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at the University in Cambridge. [Minutes of the Academy Volume 01 Part 1, 1780-1791.] The committee consisted of Richard Cranch, Samuel Williams, Joseph Willard, Caleb Gannett, and Loammi Baldwin. Their report was favorable. [The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County ..., Volume 4edited by Justin Winsor]

In 1788, a group of prominent citizens tried to purchase the orrery for Harvard or persuade the college to buy it. Pope was asking £450, which was a fortune at the time.

Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for permission to hold a lottery to raise money to buy the orrery. The General Court consented on November 22. [Sara's info] An ad placed in the Massachusetts Centinel on December 17, 1788, announced the lottery and that 3,000 tickets were for sale at the cost of two dollars each. The drawing was to be held at Faneuil Hall but took place in the hall of Representatives between March 10-14. The lottery tickets were sold, and winners were drawn in March 1789. The lottery raised £521.14.9. The money was used to purchase the orrery from Pope and to purchase additional scientific instruments for Harvard. It was placed in the Philosophy room of the University of Cambridge on March 20. President Willard signed the receipt.

Several sources reported that the orrery never worked perfectly. Recently, a very talented and widely respected repairman worked on the instrument, he suggested in conversations that the instrument underperforms due to the weight of the mechanism and the lack of a rigid structure or frame supporting the gearing. Over the years, many skillful mechanics had been called in to repair it with out success. In the 1790s, Simon Willard was summoned by the Harvard Corporation to see if he could make it run smoothly. Willard noted that the orrery would work all right up to a point. Then the whole solar system would lurch forward. Willard looked it over carefully, took out his drill, drilled a hole in a certain place, and put in a rivet. The orrery worked perfectly. The whole operation took about an hour. The Harvard authorities were delighted. "Now, Mr. Willard, how much do we owe you?" "Oh," said Willard, "about ninepence will do, I guess."

In 1789, Joseph sailed to Europe with a letter of recommendation from James Bowdoin. Pope was seeking work but was, for the most part, unsuccessful. While in London, he was highly honored by Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, and others. He also met with some of the greatest scientific minds of the day and corresponded with Jefferson and Lafayette. He returned to Boston fourteen months later in 1790 and rejoined his brother working in a shop on Marlborough Street.

In 1780, Joseph Pope completed a second mechanical wonder while working on the orrery. He built an extraordinarily tall case clock for his own personal use. For a long time, this clock was used as the standard timepiece for the whole city of Boston. The clock dial simultaneously displays the local time in twenty-four longitudes. Pope achieved this by using twenty-four individual hour hands and a single-minute hand. These hands are displayed against a time ring, which is divided into twenty-four hours. The dial also features a planetarium. It tracks six individual planets in relation to the sun, the zodiac, and the moon's phases. This mechanical feature is located in the lunette. Behind the dial is the single train weight-driven movement. It runs for eight days fully wound. The escapement is a deadbeat. The pendulum used was designed by the London clockmaker John Ellicott in 1763 and improved by Alexander Cumming. It is a compound metallic temperature-compensating pendulum and represents the highest level of technology for the day. I suspect that this pendulum was fitted to the clock when Robert returned from London in 1788.

In 1802, Joseph Pope received a patent for a thresing-machine, an also an improved windmill. [“A history of American manufactures from 1608 to 1860 : exhibiting the origin and growth of the principal mechanic arts and manufactures, from the earliest colonial period to the adoption of the Constitution : and comprising annals of the industry of the United States in machinery, manufactures and useful arts, with a notice of the important inventions, tariffs, and the results of each decennial census.” Page 501.]

About 1820, Joseph moved to Hallowell, Maine, where his son Robert lived and worked as a clock and watchmaker. Robert's shop was located opposite the Washington Hotel. A watch paper exists that claims that William Bond was the successor to Joseph's business. Bond advertised on this watch paper that he took over Joseph's location at No 36 Marlborough Street. Joseph died in Hallowell in August of 1826 at his son's home.