According to historian Susan Whitney Dimock's 1898 book "Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths: From the Records of the Town and Churches in Mansfield, Connecticut, 1703–1850" Benjamin Hanks was born 29 October 1755 in Mansfield, Connecticut. The vital records of the Town of Mansfield, however, states he was born on December 15, 1755. Hanks' parents, Uriah and Irene Hanks, were married March 20, 1755. Hanks had nine siblings, all of whom were younger. Hanks lived at home until he was seventeen years old, when in 1772 he was apprenticed to Thomas Harland, a well-known clockmaker in Norwich, Connecticut, until Hanks established a clock business in the city.
Hanks was a military drummer in the American Revolutionary War and took part in the Lexington Alarm triggered by Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride" of which he served about a month then. Later Hanks re-enlisted and served in the Third Regiment under Israel Putnam from mid May through mid December 1775. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, commandant of the fifth regiment of militia in Connecticut. Hanks married Alice Hovey around 1775 to 1777 in Windham, Connecticut. In 1780 they moved to Litchfield, Connecticut and built a house from which he ran his home business as a goldsmith / silversmith, maker of instruments, clocks, looms, and compasses. In 1786 Hanks established a foundry just south of the Court House in Litchfield and ran a "Brazier's business". He was famous for making church bells at this foundry. He ran his businesses out of his home until 1790 when he moved to Mansfield, Connecticut, where he continued his businesses. In 1808 Hanks became a partner in a foundry with his son Julius Hanks in Troy, New York. They took out a newspaper advertisement describing the brass cannons and church bells they manufactured. Their foundry also made goldsmith's items, stocking looms, clocks, and surveyor's compasses based on David Rittenhouse's designs. Hanks obtained a patent for "Molding and Casting Bells" in 1816. The Troy foundry manufactured large church bells under this patent. The Troy foundry also manufactured tower clocks and surveying tools. One of the apprentices, Andrew Meneely, went on to open a foundry of his own, which eventually became the Meneely Bell Foundry. After Hanks' death in 1824, the Troy foundry was operated for a year by his son Julius and eventually absorbed by the Meneely Bell Foundry in 1826.
Innovations
Hanks' first large church tower bell was mounted in The Old Dutch Church in New York City in 1780 when he was contracted to make the churchtower clock. Hanks obtained a fourteen-year intellectual rights patent in 1783 on this tower clock that automatically wound itself by air. The patent said the clock would wind itself up to operate by the use of air. It would automatically continue to wind itself up and operate until the mechanical parts wore out due to friction. Hanks made the first two bronze cannons made in the United States in 1797. The First Company of Connecticut Artillery carried them.
