Larcum Kendall (1719 - 1790)

Born 21 Sep 1719 in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England

Ancestors

Died 22 Nov 1790 at age 71 in London, England

Biography

Larcum was a Friend (Quaker)

Larcum was the son of Moses Kendall, a mercer and linen draper of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, and Anne Larcum.^[1] He was born on 21 September (Quaker 7th month) 1719.^[2][3]

By 1735 Larcum's parents had moved to the parish of St Clement Danes in Westminster, London.^[1] On 7 April 1735 he was apprenticed to John Jeffreys, a London clock and instrument maker,^[4] and he afterwards worked for the Quaker clockmaker George Graham before setting up his own business as a clock- and watch-maker in London. He did some work for the Board of Longitude, making marine chronometers, one of which was used by Captain James Cook on his second voyage (1772-1775).^[1][5]

In 1736 Larcum inherited property from his maternal grandfather Nicholas Larcum, and this gave him a private income.^[1]

Larcum died on 22 November 1790. The Quaker death and burial record gives his age at death as 71, and his residence as Furnival's Inn, London. He was buried on 28 November at Kingston-on-Thames Quaker burial ground, Surrey.^[6][7]

There appears to be no record of Larcum marrying or having children,^[1] and the terms of his will suggest that he did not do so.^[8]

Larcum's will, dated 6 November 1790, was proved on 8 December 1790. In it he:^[8]

• described himself as a watchmaker of Holborn
• named:
  • his brother Moses Kendall and Moses's wife Mary and their children Thomas and Mary Kendall
  • John and Joseph Biddle, brothers of each other, whom he appointed as executors

Research Notes

Birth Date

Tim Marshall's 2017 article on Quaker clockmakers mistakenly gives his birth year as 1721.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Jonathan Betts for 'Kendall, Larcum', print and online 2004, revised online 29015
2. ↑ The National Archives, ref. RG6/1378, BERKSHIRE AND OXFORDSHIRE: Monthly Meeting of Witney: births, FindMyPast
3. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQZW-SJG : 11 December 2014), Larcum Kendall, 21 Sep 1719, Birth; citing p. 50, Witney, Oxfordshire, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London
4. ↑ The Company of Clockmakers - Apprentices Register of 1631-1931, Clockmakers Company, 1931, p. 169, [[1](https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/clockmakers/PSeweEF2RA6Bmkqhtezl-2835-the-company-of-clockmakers-1631-1931-ocr-optimized-pdf) PDF], accessed 11 November 2023
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Tim Marshall. ‘Quaker Clockmakers’, Chapter 2 in Quakers, Business and Industry,  Stephen W Angel (ed), Full Media Services, 2017 (read by Michael Cayley as an eBook; also available as a PDF, https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Tim-Marshall-pdf.pdf, on the Woodbrooke website)
6. ↑ The National Archives, ref. LONDON AND MIDDLESEX: Kingston, Wandsworth, and Croydon: Burials, FindMyPast
7. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQ8F-8TR : 11 December 2014), Larcum Kendall, 28 Nov 1790, Burial; citing p. 53, Surrey, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} The National Archives, ref. PROB 11/1199/65, Discovery Centre catalogue entry

• Ian Skellern. Larcum Kendall And K1: The Greatest Watchmaker And Watch You Have (Probably) Never Heard Of, Quill and Pad website, accessed 11 October 2023
• Wikipedia: Larcum Kendall