John Wilkes' (c. 1651-1709) Beautiful Locks & 'keys so finely wrought'
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| Birmingham made 'detector' lock from c. 1680. V&A Collections. |
The Curious Locks & Keys of the Black Country
Lock making was a dominant part of artisan making in the towns and villages of the Black Country in the 1600s. Robert Plot, who wrote A Natural History of Staffordshire (1686), described Wolverhampton door-locks ‘with brass or iron boxes so curiously polish’t, and the keys so finely wrought’.*1*
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| 'the keys so finely wrought’, Robert Plot. The key to the detector lock, above. |
John Wilkes
John Wilkes (c. 1651-1709) was one such smith making locks in the Black Country. He was a locksmith in Darlaston by 1673, as noted in his marriage licence to Elizabeth Heynes.*3* Shortly after this, Wilkes moved to Birmingham, and it is his Birmingham-made locks which survive.
The lock, above, was made in about 1680 and signed Johannes Wilkes de Birmingham. It is a fascinating piece of late seventeenth-century technology as it records how may times the lock has been opened through the turning of the numbered dial. On the front are written the lines:
If I had ye gift of tongue
I would declare and do no wrong
Who ye are ye come by stealth
To impare my Master's wealth.
When a button is pressed, the man’s leg moves forwards and backwards to reveal and conceal the keyhole, and his hat is tilted to release the bolt. It is an ingenious piece of craftsmanship. It is not the only surviving John Wilkes lock, and more are shown in the gallery below.
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| Another detector lock signed by Wilkes and sold at Sotheby's in 2015 for £12,500. |
Bull Street, Birmingham
Wilkes was listed in the Hearth Tax Returns of 1682 on Bull Street, which was where the Birmingham lock makers were predominantly situated in the late 1600s.*4* Artisans often worked in close proximity so that they were near to the skills and supplies needed for their trades. It is uncertain exactly where Wilkes's workshops and attached home were on Bull Street but his son-in-law, Richard Dolphin, was a baker whose shop was adjoining the Quaker Meeting House built in 1702 (image below), so it's likely that Wilkes lived nearby.
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| The Quaker Meeting House (centre building) on Bull Street. Conjectural image of what it would have looked like after opening, c. 1702. Held by Birmingham Archive. |
Wilkes's is often quoted as the same who lived on The Square, a development of fine town houses which were bought and lived in by some of Birmingham's wealthiest inhabitants. His locks are even commemorated in Kenneth Budd's 1967 mural of the Old Square (see below). The Square, though, was completed in about 1713, four years after Wilkes died, but it was his son, also called John, who lived here. John junior was also a lock maker, so the assertion is not completely false, and it may be that the son copied his father's designs, or simpler versions of them.
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| A Wilkes lock, Kenneth Budd's mural, Old Square. |
Despite not knowing its exact position, we can peek inside Wilkes's Bull Street workshops and home, because their contents were listed in his will.
Wilkes's Home
As we enter the hall (the main living room), there were tables and three leather chairs, a 'Clock & Case' (probably against the wall), as well as 'Mapps & Pictures' and an 'old Gun', which I imagine propped against the clock. The 'Parler' had a table with eight chairs as well as 'Several Pictures & a Chimney Peice'. The kitchen contained the usual pots, pans, plates and cutlery, but also a 'fire Grate Ash Grate Racks & Cranes, [...] Dripping-pan & Clever [cleaver]', a 'Jack & two Spits', and a 'Bacon Crank'. Downstairs there was also a brewhouse [washhouse], scullery, pantry, cellar, and a 'Little Room' which had a 'Hanging Press' and storage. Upstairs were three chambers comfortably arranged. Wilkes's seemingly read in the main chamber as there were 'Two magnifying Glasses [and] Books', possibly sitting in one of the 'Cane Chairs' by the fire in the room, whilst poking it with the 'Toungs'.*5*
Wilkes's Workshops
he inventory of the tools contained in Wilkes's two workshops provide insight into how he made the locks using eighteenth-century methods. Wilkes had a hearth, as bellows were mentioned, and also a trough for cooling hot metal. There was an anvil, hammers, tongs, shears as well as technologies such as lathes. His ‘Squares & Cumpasses [compasses]’ helped him get the correct shapes and measurements. Tools which created the intricate shapes and polish were also recorded, such as vices to hold the metal and drills to begin the designs. Dozens of files of different shapes and sizes were also listed, including ‘3 New thin files, 2 oval half round & new thick half Round’. These would help him file the shapes of the foliage in the locks below. For polishing the finished articles there were rubbers and ‘smooths [smoothers]’, as well as a polishing wheel. Wilkes owned ‘Wimbles’, which were used for boring holes, and ‘Screwplates’, which formed the thread on screws. This shows that Wilkes probably made his own screws.*5*
Not Simply Locks
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| Unsigned door lock, attributed to Wilkes as very similar to signed examples, c. 1680. Sold at Bonhams in 2010 for £7,200. |
Wilkes not only produced locks but all manner of other door furniture to create not only a secure, but a beautiful door. Locks and hinge plates are held in several museums with a similar floral design as the lock above, each one slightly different, highlighting Wilkes's hand manufacture and engraving of the designs (see gallery below). Dyrham Park, a National Trust property near Bristol and Bath, have two Wilkes locks of this design still in use, which also include a doorknob section below the lock, and decorative keyhole plate, doorknob and bolts used on the other side of the door (below, thanks to Victoria Barker).
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| Hinge plate with design similar to Wilkes' locks. V&A Collection. |
The Victoria and Albert Museum hold a similar signed lock to the floral one above and the working of it is described: 'The master of the house could select, by turning the small knob at the top of the lock, the number of bolts (1 to 4) that he wished to put into operation. When set at number four, which is maximum for locking the top four bolts are locked out by just turn of the key, but four turns of the key are required to withdraw these, i.e. one at a time. There is however literally a "sting in the tail" of the top bolt, the one last withdrawn, for it triggers off the twin anti-burglar bottom bolts, and these can only be unlocked by a reverse action of the correct key'.*6*
GALLERY
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| Birmingham made 'detector' lock, John Wilkes, c. 1680. V&A. |
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| Birmingham lock, c. 1680. MET Museum. Attributed to John Wilkes as the lock is unsigned. |
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| Lock, signed by John Wilkes, c. 1680. Birmingham Museums Collection. |
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| Held at the Rijks Muesuem. |
NOTES
*1* Robert Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford: The Theatre, 1686), p. 376.
*2* John Evelyn, Diary [16 July 1654]', in Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn [...] 1641-1705/6, ed. by William Bray, 2nd edn (London: Henry Colburn, 1819), I, p. 279.
*3* John Wilkes, a locksmith from Darlaston, married Elizabeth Heynes, from Sedgley, in Sedgley on 20 September 1673. The licence stated that they were both 22 [so John Wilkes was born in about 1651]. Their five children were John, Mary (1674), Elizabeth (1678), Rebecca (1683), and Joseph (1689). According to wills Rebecca Wilkes married Richard Dolphin, a baker, and Mary Wilkes married Edward Burton, a short cutler.
*4* Heath Tax Returns, 1683, digitised on Ancestry.com and transcribed here.
*5* Will and inventory of John Wilkes lockmaker of Birmingham, 25 March 1709, Staffordshire RO, B/C/11.
*6* V&A Website: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O380844/lock-wilkes-john/