7 ft. 10 3/4 in. x 20 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.

Note on the interior door: 'This clock was imported in 1751 by Obadiah Curtis, a ship owner of Boston. Mr. Curtis' family arrived in Boston in 1630 with Governor Winthrop's party of Puritans. He was born in 1724 and died November 11, 1811, the son of Samuel Curtis.

Mr. Obadiah Curtis was a member of The Boston Tea Party, objecting to the tax on tea imposed on the American Colonies. His loyalty to King George was weakened further by the closing of the port of Boston by the British in 1775, where he is reported to have had interests in 14 ships which were then at sea and could not return to their home port. During the ensuing military confrontation between the Colonies and the British, the lead weights in this clock were melted down to be used in the Battle of Bunker Hill, where the British took great losses to capture the heights above Boston Harbor. Being unable to hold these heights, the British were forced to abandon the Port of Boston to the Revolutionaries.

This clock descended from Obadiah Curtis to his daughter Martha, wife of Samuel Clarke. Her husband had also joined the Revolutionary cause, having interests in a dozen ships which were stranded by the closing of the port of Boston. At the death of Martha in 1841, this clock came to her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Rebecca Clarke. Mrs. Clarke gave it to her daughter, Sarah, the painter, then of Newport, R.I., but who subsequently moved to live permanently in Rome, Italy to pursue her painting career. At this time, deciding not to ship the the clock overseas, she gave it to her brother, Samuel C. Clarke, who was then living in Milwaukee and who later moved to Marrietta, Georgia. It was returned to Boston in 1920 to Eliot C. Clarke, another descendant of Obadiah Curtis. It descended to his son James F. Clarke of Boston and from him to his sold Eliot C. Clarke of New York City. It has registered time in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Georgia and New York for 234 years. 

Lithgow, Millbrook, NY 1985.