Vulliamy family

The Vulliamy family was a family of clockmakers, Swiss in origin, active in 18th and 19th century Britain.

• (François) Justin Vulliamy (1712–1797), born in Switzerland, moved to London to study in the 1730s, ended up settling there, setting up a business in partnership with Benjamin Gray (1676–1764), who was in 1742 appointed watchmaker in ordinary to George II; married Gray's daughter Mary, and had 4 children with her:
  • Jane (b. 1743)
  • Benjamin (1747–1811), who took over the business from his father
    • Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (1780–1854), last in the family firm (none of his children took it up)
      • Benjamin Lewis (1815–1895)
      • George John Vulliamy (1817–1886), architect and civil engineer
      • Lucy Sarah Frances (1819–1872)
    • Mary (b. 1781)
    • Justin Theodore Vulliamy (1787–1870)
    • Lewis Vulliamy (1791–1871), architect
    • Frances (b. 1801)
    • Frederick (1803–1892)
  • Lewis (1749–1822), sugar refiner ^[1]
  • Mary (b. 1750).

Macartney mission to China

A "Vulliamy clock" was presented to the Chinese emperor by the diplomatic mission of George Macartney to Beijing in 1793.^[2]

References

1. London trade directories 1784-1798; Sun Fire Office 1793.
2. William Proudfoot, Biographical Memoir of James Dinwiddie: Embracing Some Account of His Travels in China and Residence in India (Liverpool: Edward Howell, 1868), 45.

External links

• "Vulliamy family". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28357. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)