Page 5 - Demo

Trinity College gave Joseph the thinly veiled ‘cover’ of college gardener – but the Clock and Watchmakers Guild were not to be fooled; in February 1667 the Mayor himself, William Bayley, proposed Joseph for the City Freedom. The proposal was deferred until later in the year but he was still opposed by the clockmakers and his application for Freedom was rejected. Eventually in February 1668 a compromise was settled upon and the Clockmakers’ favours were basically bought by Joseph who agreed to pay ‘a fine’ of 20 nobles (and a leather bucket) – everyone it seems has their price!
Throughout his turbulent dispute with Oxford’s Guilds Joseph still managed to produce a very small number of beautifully-made clocks; clocks that would have been crafted by Joseph himself on his work bench in Holywell Street. From the outset his movements, dials and cases were of astonishingly high quality – so good were they that it is easy to understand why Oxford’s Clockmakers objected to Joseph’s presence, he was patently putting their work to shame!
Holywell Street, Oxford
In 1667, Knibb was given lodgings within
this building which was then, and still is, owned by Merton College. It was probably in these rooms that Joseph made the movements of the two Oxford longcase clocks in this catalogue.
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