Joshua Watson

Joshua Watson (1771–1855) was an English wine merchant, philanthropist, a prominent member of the high church party and of several charitable organisations, who became known as "the best layman in England".

Joshua Watson was born on Tower Hill in the city of London on Ascension day, 9 May 1771. His forefathers were of the hardy and independent race of northern " 'statesmen;" but his father, John Watson, had come on foot from Cumberland to London in early youth to try his fortunes, and establish himself successfully as a wine merchant on Tower Hill. His mother, Dorothy, born Robson, cousin to the artist, George Fennel Robson, was also from the north of England. John and Dorothy Watson had two sons – John James (1767–1839), who was rector of Hackney for forty years and archdeacon of St. Albans; and Joshua, who followed his father's business. The two brothers remained close throughout their lives.

At the age of ten Joshua was placed under the tuition of Mr. Crawford at Newington Butts, and at the age of thirteen was sent to a commercial school kept by Mr. Eaton in the city. In 1786 he was taken into his father's counting-house, which had then moved from Tower Hill to Mincing Lane; in 1792, when he came of age, he was admitted a partner. In 1797 he married Mary, the daughter of Thomas Sikes, a banker in Mansion House Street. Her uncle, Charles Daubeny, and her brother, Thomas Sikes, vicar of Guilsborough, who had been at Oxford with Joshua's elder brother, were among the leading churchmen of the day; and Joshua from his early years was brought into contact with other members of the high-church party, of which he afterwards became the virtual leader. Among his early friends and advisers were William Stevens, the disciple and biographer of William Jones of Nayland, and founder of the Club of Nobody's Friends, of which Joshua Watson was an original member; Jonathan Boucher, who became in 1785 vicar of Epsom, where John James Watson had his first curacy; and Sir John Richardson (afterwards a judge in the court of common pleas), who had been a college friend of John James Watson. Among other friends were Henry Handley Norris, with whom he maintained an unbroken friendship of nearly sixty years, and William Van Mildert, rector of St. Mary-le-Bow in the city (afterwards bishop of Durham). Van Mildert submitted both his Boyle Lectures and his Bampton Lectures to Watson's revision, and was largely guided by his advice in literary matters. Nor was Van Mildert the only man of letters who showed confidence in his literary power. At the house of Van Mildert in Ely Place he met the elder Christopher Wordsworth, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, whom he joined in revising the proof-sheets of Christopher Wordsworth the younger's work, Theophilus Anglicanus. These men were, with Archdeacon Benjamin Harrison and William Rowe Lyall, Watson's chief friends and coadjutors.

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