Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/459

  with twenty-four coloured prints from his own drawings. His narrative is lively, and his account of eastern life is minute and interesting. In 1816 he took advantage of the peace to visit the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and other parts of the continent. In Italy he visited Byron, who received him cordially on account of his friendship with Edward Noel Long (, Life of Byron, 1847, p. 32). In 1827 Wathen made an expedition to Heligoland. He died at Hereford on 20 Aug. 1828. His portrait was drawn by Archer James Oliver, and engraved by Thomas Bragg.



WATKIN, WILLIAM THOMPSON (1836–1888), archæologist, born at Salford on 15 Oct. 1836, was son of John Watkin, a native of that town. His mother, Mary Hamilton, daughter of Benjamin Brierley, was born at Portsmouth, U.S.A. He received his education at private schools, and was afterwards engaged in mercantile pursuits in Liverpool. From early life he was greatly interested in archæological studies, and was a member, and for some time had been honorary librarian, of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, a Liverpool institution. He was also an active member, and served on the council, of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society of Manchester. His numerous papers published in the transactions of these and many other societies, and in various journals between 1871 and 1888, dealt almost exclusively with the Roman occupation of Britain. A list of his writings, compiled by Thomas Formby and Ernest Axon, is printed in the ‘Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society,’ vol. vi. In 1883 he published his great work on Roman Lancashire, which was followed in 1886 by ‘Roman Cheshire,’ both full of the most careful research and accurate descriptions of objects which he had personally examined. Valuable unpublished notes on Roman remains in North Wales and in various English counties and other manuscripts were after his death purchased by subscription and presented to the Chetham Library, Manchester. He died on 23 March 1888 at 55 Prescot Street, Liverpool, and was buried at Anfield cemetery. He was three times married, and left a widow and several daughters.



WATKINS, CHARLES (d. 1808), legal writer, practised from 1799 as a certificated conveyancer until his death on 15 Feb. 1808. He was author of some able treatises and tracts (all published at London), viz.:
 * 1) ‘An Enquiry into the Title and Powers of His Majesty as Guardian of the Duchy of Cornwall during the late Minority of its Duke,’ n.d. 8vo.
 * 2) ‘An Essay towards the further Elucidation of the Law of Descents,’ 1793, 8vo; 3rd edit. by  [q. v.], 1819; 4th edit. by  [q. v.], 1837.
 * 3) ‘Reflections on Government in general, with their Application to the British Constitution,’ 1796, 8vo.
 * 4) ‘Introduction’ (on the feudal system) to the fourth edition of Gilbert's ‘Law of Tenures,’ 1796, 8vo [see  or ].
 * 5) ‘A Treatise on Copyholds,’ 1797–1799, 2 vols. 8vo; 3rd edit. by Vidal, 1821, 2 vols.; 4th edit. by Coventry, 1825.
 * 6) ‘An Enquiry into the Question, whether the Brother of the Paternal Grandmother shall succeed to the Inheritance of the Son in preference to the Brother of the Paternal Great-grandmother,’ 1798, 8vo.
 * 7) ‘Principles of Conveyancing, designed for the Use of Students,’ 1800, 8vo; 9th edit. by Henry Hopley White, 1845.



WATKINS, CHARLES FREDERICK (1793–1873), author, born in 1793, was son of William Watkins, rector of Portaynon, Glamorganshire, and was educated at Christ's Hospital. In 1810 he joined the Hotspur frigate as midshipman, but left the service at the peace. He entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1818, was ordained as a literate, and, after serving curacies at Downton (Wiltshire) and Windsor (1820), was appointed in 1822 master of Farley Hospital, Salisbury. He was interested in geology, and formed a collection of cretaceous fossils, some of which are in the British Museum. In April 1832 he became vicar of Brixworth, Northamptonshire, retaining that preferment till his death on 15 July 1873. While living there he communicated to the Royal Society an ‘Account of Aurora Borealis of 17 Nov. 1848’ (Proc. v. 809). He published, besides various prose pamphlets, the following single or collected poems: ‘Eidespernox,’ 1821; ‘Sacred Poems,’ 1829; ‘The Infants' Death,’ 1829; ‘The Human Hand,’ &c., 1852; ‘The Twins of Fame,’ 1854; ‘The Day of Days,’ 1872; also a ‘Vindication of the Mosaic History of Creation,’ 1867, and ‘The Basilica’ (on Brixworth church), 1867. 