Philanthropist, educationalist and prominent lay churchman. Born Tower Hill. Went into his father's wine merchant business. 1811 he took the house at Clapton. A leading member of the "Hackney Phalanx" a high-church coterie. Here the National Society for Promoting Religious Education, still going in 2015, was founded, along with a number of other organisations with similar aims.
About 1822-1840 he lived at 6 Park Street Westminster where he was busy with Parliament promoting church building.
The Hackney plaque is confident that Watson returned to the same house in Clapton but we can find no confirmation of this and it seems unlikely, unless perhaps members of his family moved in when he moved out. He spent the remaining 15 years with his late wife's sister and family at Clapton (but we can find no actual address) and in Daventry with his brother's wife and family. Died Clapton.
2023: Mr Little wrote with evidence of Watson's addresses: "I found confirmation that Watson returned to the SAME house in Clapton, as members of his family did move in when he moved out. Check : " ... and removed to the house at Clapton which had been his abode before he lived in Westminster, and which was now the residence of his sister-in-law, Mrs. Snaith, with her brother and daughter." Check : "I give and bequeath to my dear wife Jane Snaith, ... the use, free of taxes and outgoings, for the period of TWO YEARS from my decease, of my freehold and copyhold house, lands, and premises at Wanstead aforesaid, (our residence) ..."
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