How The Grandfather Clock Got Its Name

Over 100 years ago in Piercebridge, North Yorkshire, England, a quaint country lodge known as the George Hotel was managed by two bachelor brothers named Jenkins, also from England. For many years, a floor clock (now known as a grandfather clock) stood in the lobby. This old clock was different in that it had always kept very good time. In those days, clocks were not generally noted for their accuracy.

One day one of the brothers died, and suddenly the old clock started losing time. At first it lost 15 minutes a day, and even though several clocksmiths tried to fix it, by the time they had given up trying to repair the afflicted timepiece, it was losing more than an hour each day.

The fact that the clock was now losing time became the talk of the town. Therefore, when the surviving brother died at the age of ninety, some said it was no surprise that the old clock, though fully wound, stopped completely -- forever.

The new manager of the hotel never tried to have it fixed. He just left it standing in a sunlit corner of the lobby, its hands resting in the position they had assumed the moment the last Jenkins brother died.

About 1875, an American songwriter named Henry Work, while on a trip to England, happened to be staying at the George Hotel. He was told the story of the old clock, and after seeing the clock, decided to compose a song about the fascinating coincidence that the clock had stopped forever the moment the last of the elder owners had passed away.

Henry came back to America and published the lyrics about this unusual clock standing in the corner of the George Hotel in England. Henry sold over a million copies of sheet music about the grandfather clock. Until that time, such long floor clocks had been called a variety of names, but only after Henry Work, over 100 years ago, had written and published his song were these tall floor clocks referred to as "grandfather clocks".

Here are the lyrics to the song. Do you remember them? (This song was still popular in the 1950’s when we were in elementary school.)

1.
"Oh, my grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf
So it stood ninety years on the floor.
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
But it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born
It was always his treasure and pride.
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

Chorus:
Ninety years without slumbering
Tic Toc Tic Toc
His life's seconds numbering
Tic Toc Tic Toc
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

2.
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro
Many hours he had spent when a boy.
And through childhood and manhood, the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck 24 when he entered at the door
With a blooming and beautiful bride.
But it stopped, short, never to go
When the old man died.

CHORUS

3.
My grandfather said that of those he could hire
Not a servant so faithful he'd found.
For it kept perfect time and it had one desire
At the close of each day to be wound.
And it kept to its place, not a frown upon its face
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

CHORUS

4.
It rang an alarm in the still of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb.
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time
With a soft and muffled chime
As we silently stood by his side
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.