Quare a Quaker, was born in 1647 and died in 1724. He was admitted to the Clockmakers Company in 1671 and was Master in 1708. As well as making very fine clocks he made repeating watches and is famous for his watch submitted to James II as a comparison to that made by Rev. Edward Barlow. The King gave his preference to that of Quare and refused patent for which Barlow had applied. This watch is probably the one in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. As a Quaker he had difficulty in accepting the office of clockmaker to George I, as he objected to taking an oath of allegiance. It is said that this difficulty was overcome and he ‘entered the Palace by the back stairs’. In later life he worked with Stephen Horseman under the title of Quare and Horseman. After Quares death, Horseman continued under the name of the partnership until 1733.
Quare, incidentally, made several very fine barometers, having obtained a patent for a portable weather glass in 1695.
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