William Midgley

Nick in England has inherited a grandfather clock through a family member. It is inscibed "William Midgley Sheffield", around the lower front of the face. Nick's Grandfather,Tom Patten, came down south from Sheffield in the 1930's, but he remembered it being delivered to his parents on the back of a horse & cart, when he was a young boy [early 1900's]and he said that the case was plain new oak wood. It has been stained or polished since and has had a new plinth made for it in recent years.
There was a William Midgley who made clocks in the 1720's-50's, so Nick thinks the mechanism might be much older than the case it's in. 
Assessment by Brian Loomes: The clock dates from the 1740s. William Midgley of Sheffield is known as a clockmaker. I have documented six or seven clocks by him. They dated between 1740 and 1750. Unfortunately no actual dates are recorded for
events in his life, so we can only guess based on the clock's style. This is a thirty-hour clock with dummy winding squares (to give the impression of an eight-day one). This was a practice common at the time in the North. It has a small moon dial, known as a 'penny moon', which is a desirable feature. The clock has its original hands. The case is of oak and of a good colour, with the exception of the replaced base, which is sympathetically made but would benefit from re-colouring, which any professional polisher can do. The clocks by this maker seems to have much in common stylistically with those by Richard Midgley of Halifax, and I feel he must be related. There were known clockmaking trade links between Halifax and Sheffield, for generations. There were two clockmaking Richard Midgleys in Halifax, probably father and son, and details of their lives are only sketchy, but the name of Richard Midgley is respected by clock collectors. Contact : Nick

Smith Midgley- Yorkshire Gunsmith.

Smith Midgley's grandfather, Joshua (born about 1801) was also a gunsmith in the Halifax district. Smith took his first name from his grandmother's surname. They were living at Mount Pleasant, Northowram in Yorkshire in 1881, Smith M. being born about 1862 in Queensbury Yorkshire. I do not yet know if his parents were alive at this time. It would appear that he moved his business to Birmingham.
 

The type of guns manufactured in Birmingham  by Smith Midgley & Co.are known to have been high grade game guns. In the U.S.A. these are called "Double Guns". These guns were made under Smith Midgley's own name and "for the trade" to be retailed under other names²
The guns made in Birmingham were made as late as the 1920's or 1930's or later.²
Coincidentally almost one hundred years later in 1988 the Lord Mayor of Bradford was a Smith Midgley.

Richard Midgley-Grandfather clock-maker.

Richard manufactured tall case clocks ("Grandfather clocks") in the mid to late 1700's. His clocks were engraved on the face, "Richard Midgley". They were made in or near Halifax, Yorkshire.³
There are a number of Richard Midgley's who were in Halifax at this time:

In the late 1960's John Franklin Midgley stumbled on a person by the name of John Fox Midgley at Illingworth near Halifax.John had "quite a collection of grandfather clocks" at this time⁹. (The Lord of Cullingworth Manor was James Fox esquire)

1.Richard Midgley who married Grace Stockdale Mid. on 3rd June 1599, this one is perhaps a little early⁴

2. Richard MIDGLEY (M)...................C: 5 Oct1722
Ba: C007493
Father: Richard MIDGLEY
Halifax, Yorkshire,
England

3. Richard MIDGLEY (M)...................  C: 30 Jan 1731 
Ba: C007493
Father: Thomas MIDGLEY
Halifax, Yorkshire,
England
So:990597

4. Richard MIDGLEY (M)...................  C: 13 May1744
Ba: C007493
Father: William MIDGLEY
Halifax, Yorkshire⁵

Baillie gives Richard Midgley of Halifax as a maker of long case clocks in Halifax between about 1720 and 1740⁶. Brian Loomes gives the dates for making these clocks between  1745 and 1763. Loomes is usually the more trustworthy of the two since he was a professional genealogist who turned to researching clocks. Baillie tended to look at clocks and guess their dates except in the case from Exeter below where he must have fouind the date engraved on the clock in order to have it so precisely.This one other Richard Midgley who is known to have made a long case clock in Exeter has it dated as 1771⁷.
 
 

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                 The North of England has a long tradition of clockmaking. The earlist
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In a response to an enquiry  re Richard Midgley, Brian replied:

"Yes, I know this maker well, and we get clocks by him from time to time. There were probably two such, maybe father and son, as their work seems to cover too long a period for one man. The earliest clocks I've seen date from about 1720 (maybe even ten or twenty years earlier),
the latest from the 1760s, maybe 1770s. It COULD be one maker or two in succession. The later clocks are usually signed at Halifax, the earlier ones usually without a placename. It is thought he worked earlier at Ripponden.
 We usually own about  one every two to three years. Many are thirty-hour clocks."⁸