In 1776, Daniel Rogers, son and heir of Ipswich minister Rev. John Rogers, sold a third of an acre out of the Rogers homestead to Aaron Smith, “aforesaid clockmaker” (134: 233). In 1779, he married Lucy Baker, the daughter of Col. John Baker of Ipswich and Eunice Pope of Salem. Aaron’s son, Jesse Smith, a watchmaker in Salem, sold the house to John Lord Jr., July 27, 1853, and Lord sold it to Luther Cheney Aug. 9, 1853 (481: 199). The Cheney heirs owned the house into the early 20th century.
Aaron Smith apprenticed in metal-working to Richard Manning, an early pioneer in the clock-making trade, and went into business on his own. During the American Revolution, his services as a blacksmith were needed for manufacturing bayonets, but Smith’s clocks were highly valued, and his reputation grew. Shown is a tall case clock made by Aaron Smith between 1775 and 1785, photo courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery.
Aaron and Lucy’s son, Jesse Smith, was born in Ipswich in 1789, learned the watch-making trade from Benjamin Balch in Salem, and by 1815, the company name was Balch & Smith. For several years, he called himself “Jesse Smith Junior” to differentiate himself from another Salem businessman with the same name. His sons, Edward and Daniel, joined the business in 1846. He died in Salem in 1866.
Sources
- T.F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, vol. I, p. 465
- MACRIS
- Ipswich Vital Records
- FindaGrave
- WikiTree
Historic Ipswich 