The narrow bar, dovetails holding the vertical sights in place, and face that reads clockwise, suggest that this compass dates from the middle years of the 18th century, when its owner, a Quaker preacher named Benjamin Ferris, settled at Quaker Hill in Dutchess County, N. Y.
Ref: Conrad S. Ham, "A Family History of a Group of Surveying Instruments 1750 to the Present Year 1954," Annual Report of Proceedings of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers 70 (1954): 134-138.
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