Like smoke on the breeze our past seems to vanish lost in time due to lack of paperwork , we make up the truth as the substantial hard evidence we need for proof is no longer in our grasp and no matter how much we trawl through old papers in cold dusty libraries or record offices it just seems like we grasp at straws till some sense is made by filling in the gaps with hearsay and speculation just so it looks right to us .
For instance the tail of the great Llanrwst clockmaker John Owen .
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For instance the tail of the great Llanrwst clockmaker John Owen .
Believed to have been directly related to Watkin Owen of Gwydir who was the son of Owen Watkin of Hydan Issa it could never be proven and books on the family only seem to be sketchy at best as there was no documents that showed him as a son or even as some believe a grandson , there was speculation that he was the son of Robert Owen one of Watkins sons but nothing directly links him as Johns father so it has become a mystery to where exactly the founder of what is arguably one of the greatest Welsh clockmaking dynasties came from.
That is till now :) .
In Wales we have many little things we find important , one of which is our name the other being our heritage , as you can see from the image above John Owen has signed his name Owens as a mark of respect for his father and the family name he has been given in time with age the "s" disappears he also named his 5th child Watkin after his grandfather as a name passed down is a great symbol of ones love for those who are most important Watkin intern named one of his sons Watkin as to pass on the name but not one of Johns children where named Robert which seemed strange to us .
So years have gone by and the dust settled and the link between John and Owen seems destined to always be lost in the mists of time till one day we came across a 30 hour clock being advertised for sale on the internet all the way up in Scotland it being a Llanrwst clock we just knew she had to come back home so out came the cheque book and off we went on yet another adventure little did we know it would fill in the gaps that for so long been missing .
A 30 hour Llanrwst John Owen longcase clock in itself is rare but this one was dated on one of the wheels inside the works itself and to have the face inscribed Owens we new it was something special .
The wheel is dated 1743 and to our surprise it also gives Johns age 23 if John was born in 1719 at the early part of 1743 just before his 24th birthday the date and age would line up .
It isn't unusual for clockmakers to practice engraving on brass parts inside the clock to make a mistake while signing a chapter ring on the clock face could prove extremely costly to the point of having to throw it away and start again so you do see the markings in other areas like the back of the chapter ring .
Or in the corners hidden from normal sight and in John practiced time and time again just to get it right as the saying goes " the sign of a craftsman is to measure twice and cut once "
We understood all but one thing as far as the engravings were concerned the date , the age and of course his name but why was there a second name ???????
This is where the research started .
Seeing the name William on the wheel sent myself and my 12 year old daughter Bessie trawling through our books and paperwork till we came up with the answer .
To have engraved a second name onto anything would have shown that person to be massively important to the person who was engraving it , a brother of son ???? Not a son as John didn't have any children at the time and it was only in 1763 that he had a son named William some 20 years after the clock was made , a Mother Wife or sweetheart ??? Nope its very rare to find a Woman's name engraved on a works and dial then things really started to fall into place .
John Owen's father may be ???? Watkin Owen of Gwydir married Mary Wynne in 1693 they had 4 children Mary , Catherine , Robert and Ann . the trail by this time was blazing hot what with Ann marrying Owen Williams and Catherine Marrying Henry Roberts it could only mean that the Owen name was passed down through Robert that is until you look at Mary ,
Mary was born in 1694 and by the time John Owen was born would have been 25 an ideal age to have a little one the one major missing factor in this part of the equation is the person she married ????
One " MR WILLIAM OWEN " who's name appears on the wheel dated 1743 .
Now this answers so many questions although William by birth was not a descendant of Watkin of Gwydir he did marry his daughter and she took his surname which was the same as hers Owen .
John named one of his children Watkin who was born in 1755 and one son William after his father William in turn went on to name two of his children William the first born and past away in 1814 the second born in 1815 the name Robert does appear in 1812 it is not as prolific as the name William or Watkin through the family and in my opinion it makes sense that the wheel is the missing link which brings a family together .
Owen Watkin - Watkin Owen of Gwydir - William Owen - John Owen (clockmaker) - Watkin Owen (clockmaker)
After restoring this wonderful Llanrwst John Owen long case clock here at our workshops at Snowdonia Antiques the wheel with the dates and engravings was once again placed in its original position and the clock now works perfectly .
I might not be right about bringing the Owen family closer together but one thing I do know is this little adventure has brought my daughter and I closer .
There are people who make history and those who wright books about history lets just hope today we've written our own little page .
Snowdoniaantiques.co.uk
