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Brentford Families - Gaydon

I read with interest your piece about No.102. I wanted to supplement and amend some of the information in your article regarding the Gaydons, since they are my ancestors and I have been researching them, although I am by no means an expert.

Some of the conclusins you draw may be slightly inaccurate particularly the question as to whether the brothers' claim that the business was "Established as a Watch Makers’ over 300 Years’ ". Edwin and Henry were descended from Alexander Gaydon (1795) and Susannah Sommerville. I have been told that there were 26 clock and watchmakers in the Gaydon family in and around Barnstaple over several generations, so the likelihood that the family, if not the specific business in Brentford, had been in the clock and watchmaking business for 300 years, was probably true.

Another connection of which you may not be aware is that the Gaydon partner of Birch and Gaydon Ltd, Goldsmiths, Silversmiths, etc. of Fenchurch St, London was Edwin and Henry's great nephew, Henry Martin Gaydon. He was distinguished as a Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1925. He is related to Edwin and Henry through his grandfather Henry Gaydon (1798), who was Alexander's brother. Henry Martin Gaydon's father John Gaydon (1821) was also a clockmaker and was responsible for constructing many of the church clocks in North Devon. My interest is primarily Henry Martin Gaydon who was my great grandmother's (Helen Gaydon) brother.

One of my distant Australian cousins who is descended from Alexander Gaydon (1837), also Henry Gaydon's (1798) son (a definite shortage of names in this family!), is writing a book about the descendants of Henry Gaydon, so if you have additional information to share or would like to be updated on any pertinent information we find out, please let me know.

Page published July 2010