Researching John Watson

Watson was born in Launceston and educated at the University of Tasmania, where he graduated in economics and accountancy. He was a chartered accountant, company director and lecturer in accountancy before entering politics.

Watson was a member of the Coalition Shadow Ministry from 1990 to 1994 but never held ministerial office. He was however one of the Senate's leading experts on taxation and superannuation matters and is highly regarded by his Coalition colleagues. He was expected to announce his retirement at the 2007 election, but decided to apply for preselection, despite being 70 years of age.

On 12 May 2007, Watson was defeated in his bid for preselection after his decision to recontest sparked anger within the party.

Watson, a native of Western Pennsylvania, was born in 1771 and was a student at Canonsburg Academy (later Jefferson College, now Washington & Jefferson College). He was a student of the school's founder, John McMillan, who was arranged for him to attend the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from where he graduated in 1797. Watson married McMillan's second daughter, Margaret. In his time, Watson was known as an accomplished Latin and Greek scholar. He was one of the founders of the Philo Literary Society at Jefferson College.

A frail and intense man, in sharp contrast with his mentor and father-in-law McMillan, Watson was elected to the Presidency of Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College) on August 29, 1802. Watson died on November 30, 1802, only three months after his ascension to the presidency and 2 days after the first Jefferson College diplomas were awarded. McMillan carried out his duties until the election of James Dunlap as the second president of Jefferson College.

Watson was born in Dundee, Scotland on 7 March 1860. He specialised in sanitation and was regarded as a pioneer in the development of sewage treatment. Watson was engineer to the Birmingham and District Drainage Board and also General Manager to the Birmingham, Tame and Rea District Drainage Board. At Birmingham he was responsible for the construction of the first large-scale percolating filter plant, a complete departure from the traditional land treatment in use in the city and elsewhere. Other changes that he introduced, based on his work in Birmingham, were the separation of sludge digestion, the extraction of methane from sewage for use in power generation and the introduction of flocculation prior to the percolating filter. He drew up plans for sanitation works in the district of Aberdeen which included a pumping station at Denmill, reservoir at the Hill of Ord and water supply to the district of Culter. These plans are now held by the National Archives of Scotland.

Watson became General Manager of Birmingham Agricultural College by 1920 where he undertook investigations into tuberculosis in cattle. By 1920 he was also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and a fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute. Watson was elected president of the ICE for the November 1935 to November 1936 session. In his retirement he joined his son, David Mowat Watson, who was also a member of the ICE, in his private engineering consultancy practice. Watson died in Birmingham in 1946. His son, David Watson followed in his footsteps in November 1954 by also becoming president of the ICE.

A bookseller, then a bank cashier by trade, as a young man he began gathering the reminiscences of elderly people, and collected them in the first major history of the city. Annals of Philadelphia was published in 1830, with expanded editions in 1844 (two volumes) and 1857. A third volume by Willis P. Hazard was added in 1879, and the set continued to be published into the early 20th century.

Watson hired a British immigrant, William L. Breton, to illustrate the 1830 Annals. Based on Watson's own sketches, Breton's lithographed illustrations included the first published images of George Washington's President's House (demolished two years later), of the State House Tavern (opposite Independence Hall), and of a slave auction at the London Coffee House. Later editions of the Annals copied these lithographs as woodcuts, and then engravings.

A scrapbook of Watson's notes for the 1830 Annals is housed at the Library Company of Philadelphia. It includes such curiosities as squares of fabric cut from dresses worn by Philadelphia ladies at the "Mesquianza", an elaborate May 1778 pageant and ball hosted by British officers during the Revolutionary War occupation of the city.

He also published Historic Tales of Olden Time of New York City and State (New York, 1832), Historic Tales of Olden Time of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1833), and Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State (New York, 1846), among others.

He was a passionate advocate for preserving historic buildings. He urged the preservation of the Slate Roof House, a 1687 building that had housed Pennsylvania's founder, William Penn from 1699 to 1701, and served as the government offices for the Colony from 1699 to 1704. That fight was lost, but the shock of the building's 1867 demolition — after Watson's death — helped spark a historic preservation movement in Philadelphia.

While Watson is readable, he is not always reliable, and his carelessness about citing sources is a frustration to scholars.

Still, it is because of him that we have the first-person accounts of people such as "Black Alice", an enslaved African woman reputedly born in Philadelphia 1686, who lived to age 116, and claimed to remember William Penn.

Watson was a right-handed batsman used mainly by Somerset in the lower order. In his first match, against Derbyshire at Ilkeston in May 1933, he came in for his second innings with the Somerset score on 63 for six wickets, Somerset and Derbyshire having been dismissed for 87 and 81 all out respectively in their first innings. Watson hit 56 and shared an eighth wicket partnership of 92 with Michael Bennett, though Derbyshire then won the match easily.

Watson played seven further games for Somerset that season, but his highest score in these matches was only 33, and a few matches in each of the 1934, 1935 and 1936 seasons were no more successful.

After the Second World War, he played in a few Minor Counties matches for Dorset.