George Graham, F.R.S., 1673–1751

Abstract

ON Nov. 24,1751, at night, a funeral procession left a shop bearing the sign of the Dial and One Crown, in Fleet Street, for Westminster Abbey. The hearse was preceded by three coaches containing the pall-bearers Dr. Knight, Mr. Watson, Mr. Canton, Mr. Short, Mr. Catlyn, and Mr. Bird, and was followed by nine other coaches. Thus was borne to his last resting-place George Graham, widely known both at home and abroad as the finest mechanician of his day. Arrived at the Abbey, the coffin was carried into the nave and was then laid beside that of Thomas Tompion, who had died in 1713, recognised as “the father of English watchmaking”. The grave is not far from that of Newton. It is covered by a stone with an inscription, a part of which refers to Graham, “whose curious inventions do honor to ye British genius whose accurate performances are ye standard of mechanical skill”. In the middle of the eighteenth century burials in the Abbey were more frequent than they are to-day, and it was a fortunate decision which led to the interment within its walls of these two famous masters of horology.