Figure 69. — Wooden surveying instrument inscribed "Invented by P. Merrill, 

 Esq." and "Made by John Kennard, Newmarket." Made of walnut, 7/4 in. long; 

 in its original pine case, with cover. The compass card and dial (see opposite) 

 were made by Thomas Salter Bowles of Portsmouth. In Frank C. Churchill 

 Collection, Dartmouth College Museum, Hanover, New Hampshire. 



Some data on Kennard is available in a history of Newfields 

 (formerly Newmarket) by Reverend Fitts. John Kennard was 

 born in Kittery, Maine, in 1782. He learned the trade of clock- 

 maker in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, presumably working with 

 the members of the Ham family or others. On July 3, 1806, he 

 married Sarah Ewer. He lived for various periods in Nashua and 

 Concord before moving to Newfields in 1812. He lived in the 

 Palmer house (which was burned in September 1899), and he kept 

 a store in the little community and also served as its postmaster 

 from 1822 to 1824. The post office was the only public office in 

 the town until the cotton mills were built on the Lamprey River 

 in 1823. Kennard later built and occupied the Kennard house on 

 Piscassic Street, which was subsequently owned by Jeremiah Towle 

 and has since been burned. In December 1830 he established an 

 iron foundry together with Temple Paul and the Drake family, 

 but in 1834 he sold his interest to Amos Paul and others. He was 

 the father of six children and he died in 1861. During his lifetime 

 he had specialized in making tall case and banjo clocks. ^^^ 



^^^ Rev. James Hill Fitts, History of Newfields, New Hampshire, 1638-1911, 

 (Concord: Rumford Press, 1912). 



129 



