A jacquemart (sometimes jaquemart and also called a quarter-jack) is an automaton, an animated, mechanised figure of a person, usually made from wood or metal, which strikes the hours on a bell with a hammer. Jacquemarts are usually part of clocks or clocktowers, and are often near or at the top of the construction. The figurine is also known as Jack of the Clock or Jack o'Clock.
The word is originally French but is sometimes used in English as well. The origin of the word is disputed, but one theory relates it to a tool called a 'jacke', used by the craftsmen building church towers, the steeplejacks.
In the South-West, the only existing one is that of Lavaur, located at the top of the bell tower of the Saint-Alain cathedral. Legend has it that during the wars of religion a Protestant prisoner was locked up in the bell tower and had to ring the bells every hour. He built a mechanism to do it for him.[2]
