Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, Andover, and Coventry, Connecticut. A clockmaker, silversmith, engraver, and instrumentmaker.

Daniel Burnap. Clockmaker, silversmith, engraver, and instrumentmaker of East Windsor, Andover, and Coventry, Connecticut.

Daniel Burnap was born on November 1, 1759, in Coventry (which is now Andover), Connecticut. His parents were Captain Abraham and Susan (Wright) Burnap; his father, a Justice of the Peace, landowner, and farmer, came from Norwich and moved to Coventry before Daniel's birth. Many clock reference works list Daniel Burnap as an apprentice of Thomas Harland. Harland was an English-born clockmaker who settled in Norwich in 1773. It is currently believed that Burnap went to Harland's house on September 8, 1779, and remained in Norwich until July 7, 1880. Burnap must have acquired a good deal of clockmaking experience before he joined Harland. The relatively brief time that he spent with Harland was not sufficient for him to learn the entire craft of clockmaking. We think it is possible that at Harland's workshop he learned engraving, silversmithing and the manufacture of musical tall clocks. The matter is still a mystery. It is not known who gave Burnap the initial knowledge before he began his training with Harland. 

Burnap moved to East Windsor sometime before 1780 and worked as a journeyman for John Fairchild; by 1786 he had built the homestead a few rods north of Bissell's Tavern, and later began making clocks and training his own apprentices. 

The apprentice most famous for his work was Eli Terry, who became Connecticut's most well-known clockmaker. Terry was a pioneer in the introduction of mass-production methods in this country and is regarded as the first person in America to manufacture goods, or more precisely clocks, with interchangeable parts. Burmap also trained several others, including Daniel Kellogg, Harvey Sadd, Abel Bliss, Lewis Curtis, Nathaniel Olmsted, Levi Pitkin, Flavel Bingham, Ela Burnap, Thomas Lyman, and Daniel Porter. Many of these men carried on working in the clock business for long periods. Interestingly, we have a Burnap tall clock movement with Daniel Porter's name engraved on the front plate. The engraving indicates that Porter signed the clock while he was acting as an apprentice to Burnap. We also have a signed Burnap dial showing that Porter practiced his engraving on the back. 

The design of Daniel Burnap's tall clock cases from East Windsor is rather similar. Simeon Loomis, the East Windsor cabinetmaker, was the supplier of many of these cases. 

Burnap got married to Deliverance Kingsbury in 1782; the couple had no children, and Deliverance died in 1822. Daniel then married Mary (Kingsbury) in 1823, and they had three children: David (1824-1844), Mary Delia (1827-1912), and Charlotte Elizabeth (1830-1906). No current information is available on the year Burnap first started working in Coventry. Four tall clocks are known to be signed as being made in Coventry, one of which is clearly dated 1789 on the dial. In 1795, Daniel began buying up land in his hometown of Coventry. Although Daniel's land and house were situated in the town of Coventry, they were also within the area covered by the Andover Ecclesiastical Society, which had been established as early as 1747 and comprised parts of Coventry, Hebron, and Lebanon. When Andover became a town in 1848, it adopted the boundaries the Society had set. The only clock that is signed 'Andover' is known to us; it is now housed in the Nathaniel Hale Homestead Museum in Coventry, CT. In 1798, Burnap built a sawmill there, which became a major source of his income. He seems to have kept his shop in East Windsor for a while, even though he lived 20 miles away in Coventry, and he did so until 1805, when he finally closed the East Windsor shop. 

Daniel Burnap was a lively and highly regarded member of the community. For a number of years, he served as a Justice of the Peace and held court in a large room on the first floor of this house. In his later life, he abandoned his shop and fitted out a room in the attic so he could stay busy with less demanding work, like engraving and repairing watches. He died in Andover on 26 September 1838 at the age of seventy-eight and had been a wealthy and respected citizen.

There are tall clocks marked Esat Windsor, Andover, and Coventry.