Artist Profile

Aaron Willard

• Lived:
• 1757-1844
• Worked:
• Roxbury, Massachusetts
• Style:
• Clockmaker

• Aaron Willard (1757-1844) of Roxbury, Massachusetts and his brother Simon (1753-1848) were prolific and innovative clockmakers who dominated the clock making industry in the Boston-area during the first half of the nineteenth century. Aaron worked in a separate location in Roxbury from his brother and relocated about 1792 across the Boston line, about a quarter mile away from Simon’s shop. He is listed in the 1798 Boston directory as a clock maker “on the Neck” and his large shop employed up to 30 people, while 21 other clockmakers, cabinetmakers, dial and ornamental painters and gilders worked within a quarter-mile radius by 1807. His cases inspired by London clocks were standardized and made by local cabinetmakers such as Samuel (1769-1797) and William Fisk (1770-1844).