Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Richard Cranch and His Daybook: A Colonial Watch Repairman from Boston and Great Friend of John Adams
Richard Cranch was an unknown colonial watchmaker until Robert Mussey approached the NAWCC in 2021 and offered to donate all his research about him and his daybook documenting his watch repair business in Boston from 1769-1774 just prior to the Revolutionary War.
Richard Cranch emigrated to Boston from England in 1746. He was a voracious reader, accumulated a large library, and was extremely knowledgeable on many subjects, particularly religion. He knew many influential and wealthy individuals in Boston and was well respected.
He married Mary Smith in 1761 and introduced his best friend, John Adams, to Mary’s younger sister, Abigail. John Adams married Abigail Smith in 1764.
Richard Cranch started a watch repair business in Salem in early 1766 and moved it to Boston in late 1767. He acquired a new daybook in 1769 and recorded the watches that he took in for repair from his numerous clients. The daybook has survived in the Bostonian Society Library. The presentation provides a short biography of Richard Cranch and focuses on analysis of the daybook.
Andy Dervan began collecting antique clocks in 1997 and joined the NAWCC. He found clock collecting was a fascinating hobby, and his principal collecting interest is 19th- and 20th-century weight-driven clocks, particularly banjo clocks. Researching the manufacturing histories of various makers and companies was more challenging than simply collecting; he has published many articles in the NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin, the American Clock and Watch Museum’s Timepiece Journal, and Clocks Magazine. In 2011, he retired from DuPont Performance Coating and volunteered at The Henry Ford Museum and ran a clock appraisal business and today continues his horological research. In 2011, he became an NAWCC Fellow, in 2016 he was awarded the NAWCC’s James W. Gibbs Literary Award, and in 2017, he became an NAWCC Silver Star Fellow. He has developed and presented a wide variety of horological programs based on his research.
Richard Cranch and His Daybook: A Colonial Watch Repairman from Boston and Great Friend of John Adams
Richard Cranch was an unknown colonial watchmaker until Robert Mussey approached the NAWCC in 2021 and offered to donate all his research about him and his daybook documenting his watch repair business in Boston from 1769-1774 just prior to the Revolutionary War.
Richard Cranch emigrated to Boston from England in 1746. He was a voracious reader, accumulated a large library, and was extremely knowledgeable on many subjects, particularly religion. He knew many influential and wealthy individuals in Boston and was well respected.
He married Mary Smith in 1761 and introduced his best friend, John Adams, to Mary’s younger sister, Abigail. John Adams married Abigail Smith in 1764.
Richard Cranch started a watch repair business in Salem in early 1766 and moved it to Boston in late 1767. He acquired a new daybook in 1769 and recorded the watches that he took in for repair from his numerous clients. The daybook has survived in the Bostonian Society Library. The presentation provides a short biography of Richard Cranch and focuses on analysis of the daybook.
Andy Dervan began collecting antique clocks in 1997 and joined the NAWCC. He found clock collecting was a fascinating hobby, and his principal collecting interest is 19th- and 20th-century weight-driven clocks, particularly banjo clocks. Researching the manufacturing histories of various makers and companies was more challenging than simply collecting; he has published many articles in the NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin, the American Clock and Watch Museum’s Timepiece Journal, and Clocks Magazine. In 2011, he retired from DuPont Performance Coating and volunteered at The Henry Ford Museum and ran a clock appraisal business and today continues his horological research. In 2011, he became an NAWCC Fellow, in 2016 he was awarded the NAWCC’s James W. Gibbs Literary Award, and in 2017, he became an NAWCC Silver Star Fellow. He has developed and presented a wide variety of horological programs based on his research.
