Ruth's Blog

An attractive little item in the museum is a Victorian pocket watch, which is engraved with the name of T Lawrence, a Louth watchmaker.  The watch has a silver case, and is 6 cm in diameter.  This would have belonged to a gentleman, and he would have kept it in the inner pocket of his jacket or waistcoat.

It is said that men began to carry watches in their pockets after waistcoats were introduced in the 17th century by King Charles II.   Pocket watches were rounded and flattened with no sharp edges, and were normally attached to a chain to prevent them being damaged if dropped.  Ours is a pair-case pocket watch, meaning that it has both an inner case containing the movement, and a protective outer case.  The outer silver case has hallmarks showing it was made in 1860 by Philip Woodman & Sons of Clerkenwell, London.

Engraved around the chapter ring and dial are the words, “Keep me clean and use me well and I to you the truth will tell”.  The watch has a fusee mechanism, with a cone-shaped pulley and a chain to deliver consistent power from the mainspring to the gears.

Teft Lawrence (sometimes written Laurence) was a watchmaker who lived and worked in 3 Aswell Street Louth between about 1850 and 1865.  This small shop was and still is next to the Turk’s Head public house.  Even though Teft described himself as a watchmaker and the watch is engraved with his name, it is almost certain that he did not make this watch himself.  By the mid-19th century, it was more usual for watchmakers to purchase mass-produced movements.

Teft, born in 1822, was the fourth son of Tom Lawrence who ran a merchant’s business based at Louth Riverhead.  Teft became a watchmaker and in 1852 he married Ellen Portas, whose family were at the Rising Sun public house at the bottom of Aswell Street.  There are a surprising number of reports in contemporary newspapers about the family of Teft Lawrence.  There are detailed descriptions of the unfair dismissal of an apprentice, the under-payment of the Lawrences’ washerwoman, the serving of underage customers in the Rising Sun, and the repayment of loans to family members.

Teft and Ellen had a total of eleven children (nine survived) but in 1865 Teft contracted typhoid and died.  He was only 43.  Ellen continued the business as well as caring for her young family.  As you might expect, she sought an assistant watchmaker.  He was Richard Boyall who had previously been employed in Leicester.  After working together for about twelve years, Ellen and Richard married, but only three years later, Richard died, and Ellen again became a widow.  She ran the watchmaking business until her youngest child, Edward Cotton Lawrence (who had been born shortly before his father died) took over and he continued in Aswell Street until the 1930s.

We are very grateful to Andy Cooper for examining and cleaning this watch, and for helping us with technical details.