Joseph Ellicott (294)

Joseph Ellicott (1732–1780) was a clockmaker, a miller, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1770. He was born in Bucks County, PA, to Andrew and Ann Bye Ellicott. As a young man, Joseph was an apprentice to a weaver, but he showed an early interest in and talent for mechanics. He began fixing grist mills with a local repairman named Samuel Bleaker and in 1753 married Bleaker’s daughter, Judith. The young couple, along with Joseph’s brothers, built their own grist mill and began to pull themselves out of poverty. In 1766, Joseph’s fortunes quickly changed when he inherited his great-great grandfather’s property and travelled to England the following year to assess it. Joseph sold the land for fifteen hundred pounds and returned to Bucks County a wealthy man. In 1772, Joseph and his brothers used this inheritance to buy 770 acres of land in Maryland and began to build a new gristmill. The family moved to what is now called Ellicott City two years later when the mill was complete. Operating under the name Ellicott and Co., the family became the area’s main source of flour for export, with local farmers beginning to grow wheat instead of tobacco. Eventually, the company expanded to operate two separate mills in the area: Ellicott’s Upper Mills and Ellicott’s Lower Mills. Joseph was fascinated with clockmaking throughout his life. In 1769, he and his son, APS Member Andrew Ellicott, constructed his masterpiece: an eight-foot astronomical and musical clock. This clock had three dials which showed the time, the phases of the moon, the position of the sun and planets, and played twenty-four distinct tunes. Joseph died suddenly at the age of forty-eight, leaving his sons the two grist mills and a sizable fortune.