Thomas Stretch (March 30, 1697 – October 19, 1765) was an American clockmaker and a founder and first Governor of the Colony in Schuylkill, later known as The State in Schuylkill, or Schuylkill Fishing Company. In 1753 he erected the first clock at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a large clock dial and masonry clock case at the west end of the structure.
Family
Born at Staffordshire, England, he came to America with his father, Peter Stretch, in 1702. The earliest known clockmakers in Leek, Staffordshire were members of the Quaker family named Stretch. Samuel Stretch, Peter Stretch's uncle, was making lantern clocks in Leek in 1670.
Thomas Stretch married July 29, 1743, Mary Anne Robins, who died and was buried in Friends' Burial Ground, Philadelphia, October 10, 1781, in the sixty-ninth year of her age. Although Thomas followed his father's example in his craft and philanthropy, he did not do so personally. Thomas married out of the Quaker faith and was censured by the Monthly Meeting. As a result, "Thomas Stretch brought in a paper [to the Meeting] signed by himself & Wife condemning their unchaste freedom before Marriage as well as their disorderly procedure in Marriage," surely an embarrassment to his parents.
Of their five children only one lived beyond childhood, Peter Stretch II (1746-1793) who married Sarah Howell (1754-1825), daughter of Samuel Howell (1723-1807), eminent Philadelphia merchant and a financier of the American Revolution and Sarah Stretch (1727-1770), a daughter of Thomas's brother Joseph Stretch. Thomas and Mary's daughters: Mary Stretch (died 1744); Elizabeth Stretch (died 1747); Ann Stretch (died 1750) and Sarah Stretch (died 1756). Thomas Stretch was buried at Friends Burial Ground, Philadelphia, on October 19, 1765.
His son Peter, who was not of age when Thomas made his will in 1760, was left his clocks, watches, tools, etc. Half of his property went to his beloved wife Mary. Thomas Stretch's brother, Joseph, and his nephew Isaac Stretch were his executors. The will is proved October 23, 1765.
Clockmaker
Thomas Stretch's father, Peter Stretch, became one of the most important clockmakers in colonial America, noted for his magnificent tall case clocks, intricate watches and clocks, and scientific instruments. His shop was at the southeast corner of Front and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, then called "Peter Stretch's Corner at the Sign of the Dial". Soon after the death of his father, Thomas Stretch sold his father's property at the Sign of the Dial and established himself a block farther west, at the southwest corner of Second and Chestnut Streets.
During his prime years, Thomas Stretch was probably the most competent clockmaker in Philadelphia. In 1752, when Isaac Norris (statesman) was selecting a man to build the first clock for the State House, today known as Philadelphia's Independence Hall, he chose Thomas Stretch, the son of his old friend and fellow council member, to do the job.
In 1753, Thomas Stretch erected a large clock dial and masonry clock case at the west end of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. That equipment, which resembled a giant tall clock (grandfather clock), had been removed in about 1830. The clock's dials were mounted at the east and west ends of the main building connected by rods to the clock movement in the middle of the building. The western end had a masonry structure designed to look like the clock case. The acquisition of the original clock and bell by the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly is closely related to the acquisition of the Liberty Bell. By mid-1753, the clock had been installed in the State House attic, but six years were to elapse before Thomas Stretch received any pay for it.
During the summer of 1973, a replica of the Thomas Stretch clock was restored to Independence Hall. The $159,000 replica included a 14-foot copy of the clock case atop a 40-foot soapstone column, just the way it looked during the Revolutionary War. To lessen danger of deterioration, the original delicate wood carvings were instead cast in polyester bronze. The only major concession in modernism: the clock, with an eight-foot dial painted red-brown and Persian blue, is powered by electricity rather than wooden works and weights.