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Perhaps the most important member of the Willard family, is Simon Willard, and that may be
the name you've heard, most of all. Not only did he invent the banjo clock, that we'll
talk about later, but he was probably the most inventive of all of the brothers. He
was, basically lived from the middle of the seventeen hundreds to the middle of the eighteen
hundreds. Never was rich, like a couple of other members of his family, but, seemed to
have a contented life being a high quality clockmaker. He even made clocks for the U.S.
Senate and the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The other important clocks of his, in
addition to the banjo, are what's called Roxbury cases. These were grandfather clocks, tall
case clocks. In this type of style, with fret work at the top, white painted dials, and
often inlay in the case. So, these are very desirable, made by other clock makers in the
area, other than the Willards. But, a Simon Willard, Roxbury case grandfather clock would
be a very nice thing to own, and very expensive. We actually have a painting of Simon Willard
there too, just so you can picture the gentleman in his prime. One of his descendants, John
Ware Willard, wrote a book in the early nineteen hundreds, about Simon Willard. We've learned
that there are things in here, which probably aren't true, but this is a good early resource
book for reading about Simon Willard, and his importance to the whole world of clock
making.