In Bailey's Liverpool Directory of 1787 Anthony Wilkinson is listed as a gold balance maker in Ormskirk. 

We do not know the exact dates of his birth or death but records of Ormskirk Freeholders in 1792 state that he was then fifty three years old and his will was proved on July 26th 1804. 

Little is known about the character of the man but we do know from his will that he had been married and had three daughters, Ellen, Margaret and Sarah. His daughter Sarah was married to Henry Elson, a surgeon in Ormskirk. 

Anthony Wilkinson had formerly worked in Kirkby near Liverpool and advertisements for his machines claim that he was the original inventor of gold balances which could be bought in every market town in England. 

The balances were portable and used to check that coins included their correct weight in gold as specified in law. The coins included guineas, half-guineas, seven shilling pieces, sovereigns and half sovereigns. 

Wilkinson's Gold Balance Maker

They consisted of a tip - over balance that fitted into a pocket case. There was a sliding weight on the guinea pan side up to the number 12, each number represented one pennyworth's deficiency of weight. On the side of the weighing bar were five or six lines which represented a farthing above the official value. 

The balances could also be used by the medical profession to divide a gram of gold into sixteen parts. 

After Wilkinson's death the trade was carried on in Ormskirk by the local watch and clockmakers.

Further source of information:

Transactions of the Lancashire and Antiquarian Society, 
Vol LI - 1936, pp11 - 18