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Maker Info
William Hamlin
William Hamlin (1772-1869) was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His father was a pewterer and brazier. William was apprenticed to Samuel Canfield, a gold- and silversmith in Middletown, Connecticut. BY 1795, he had returned to Providence to set up shop as an engraver of bank notes. By 1806, his business included the selling of musical instruments.
In 1824, Hamlin was listed in the Providence City Directory as "Hamlin William, engraver and mathematical instrument maker, 135 South Main, 170 Benefit." A trade card listing the 135 South Main Street address lists him as "At the Sign of the Quadrant." He was at 120 South Main in 1832, at 88 South Main in 1836, at 86 South Main in 1838, and at 69 South Water from 1841 to 1844. From 1847 until his death in 1869, he was located at 131 South Water Street.
He is known to have made a telescope, but most of his wares were imported or made by others. These included included compasses, quadrants, sextants, spyglasses, telescopes, and microscopes. Although he calls himself an instrument maker in his first advertisements, his trade card for 1847-1867 makes it clear that he was not a maker of instruments but only a reseller and repairer who rectified compasses and such. A mariner's compass at Mystic Seaport has his label pasted over those of Sawyer & Hobby and Robert Merrill, both of New York.
His son was Richard Ely Hamlin, a merchant grocer, who was thought to sell reflecting telescopes and to have taken over his father's instrument business.
A portrait of William Hamlin shows him holding a five-draw telescope.