Virginia Late Federal Cherry Tall Case Clock, Benjamin Cooley

Grayson County, circa 1810, painted tombstone dial with Arabic and Roman number hour chapters, subsidiary seconds dial and calendar aperture, corners decorated with fruit cartouches, beneath a landscape and nautical theme moon phase, the dual train movement's posterior plate stamped twice "B. COOLEY" within a serrated rectangular reserve and "NO XXX", for master clockmaker, Benjamin J. Cooley of Grayson County, Virginia (1774-1847), set within a cherry case, poplar secondary, featuring a developed hood with broken arched pediment and five urn finials, four fully turned columns, and glass aperture sides, the case waist door and distinctive base with chamfered corners and applied carved moldings, raised on original carved bracket feet from the solid, without pendulum, weights, and key.

101 x 21 x 12 in.

From the Wood Family’s Historic Mulberry Hill Home, Edenton, North Carolina

Genealogical records indicate Benjamin Franklin Cooley was born in Orange County, New York in August 3, 1774 to immigrant parents, Abraham Cooley and Sara Reeder. Sometime around 1781, the family moved from New York to Surry County, North Carolina, and then a few years later to Montgomery County, Virginia (which later became Grayson County, and then Carroll County).

Benjamin lived in Coal Creek most of his life, and was well-known as a clocksmith in the area. According to some sources, Benjamin may have traveled to Salem, North Carolina in the early 19th century, in order to gain clocksmith tutelage from the Moravian community.

Benjamin married Jane Dickey on October 1st, 1805 in Grayson County where they raised several children. In his middle years, he had represented Grayson County in the state legislature at Richmond and was a member of the court for Grayson County. He also served as high sheriff of the county in the 1860s.

Later glass and central urn finial; pediment with crack and repair; case with surface scratches and vertical age crack to base; hood sits askew atop case; upper case backing with later wood strip; lacking weights and pendulum; subsidiary dial lacking hand; dial and moon phase with areas of flaking paint; weight wires frayed. Please see Terms and Conditions of Sale: Clocks and Watches.