Hillsborough Town Clock

The Hillsborough town clock was made in London in the third quarter of the eighteenth century and appears to have been a gift to the town in the 1760s, perhaps in connection with the change in the name of the town to honor the Earl of Hillsborough. The clock is one of a very few of its kind that have survived from the colonial period. The clock operated in several locations before it was placed in the clock tower of the Orange County Court House. In the 1760s it seems to have been in the steeple of the first church in Hillsborough on the site of the present town museum on Churton Street. After the Revolution it was placed in the Market House that stood astride Churton Street. In 1846 it moved to the fine brick court house constructed by John Berry in a tower constructed especially for it. Remarkably, and substantially as a result of the work of a series of dedicated volunteers, the clock has performed exceptionally well over the centuries with few breakdowns and repairs. It has stood as the symbol of the town of Hillsborough to the generations of residents of, and visitors to, Orange County since the earliest days of settlement.