Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/24

 where John James Watson had his first curacy; and Sir [q. v.] (afterwards a judge in the court of common pleas), who had been a college friend of John James Watson. Among other friends were [q. v.], with whom he maintained an unbroken friendship of nearly sixty years, and [q. v.], 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 well-known work, 'Theophilus Anglicanus.' These men were, with Archdeacon [q. v.] and [q. v.], Watson's chief friends and coadjutors.

Though 'not slothful in business,' Watson always had his heart in church work, and in 1811 he took a house at Clapton, within five minutes' walk of his brother's rectory at Hackney, and also near Henry Handley Norris. The three worked shoulder to shoulder. Clapton and Hackney became the centre of the various religious and philanthropic projects of the high-church party, and the coterie from which they emanated was called the 'Hackney Phalanx.' In 1811 the 'National Society' for the education of the poor was formed; it originated in a meeting at Watson's house at Clapton, consisting of three persons, Watson, Norris, and John Bowles. Watson became its first treasurer, and it grew with marvellous rapidity.

In the same year (1811) Watson and Norris purchased the 'British Critic' in order to restore it to its original lines as the organ of the high-church party, from which it had somewhat diverged. In 1814 Watson retired from business in order to devote himself exclusively to works of piety and charity. He never missed any meeting of the societies for the Propagation of the Gospel, for Promoting Christian Knowledge, or the National Society, and his counsel was highly valued. He took a deep interest in the colonial church, being an intimate friend of Bishops Middleton (Calcutta), Inglis (Nova Scotia), Broughton (Australasia), and subsequently Selwyn (New Zealand). In 1814 he was appointed, in conjunction with his friend Archdeacon Cambridge, treasurer of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which during his treasurership increased greatly its work and income. About the same time he became secretary of the relief fund for the German sufferers from the Napoleonic wars. In 1817 the Church Building Society, called at first the Church Room Society, was formed. Watson was largely instrumental in its foundation, drawing up the original resolution. This was quickly followed by a royal commission for church building issued under Lord Liverpool's government. Watson was one of the commissioners, and he found the work so engrossing that in 1822 he took a house, No. 6 Park Street, Westminster, where he lived for sixteen years, in order to be near the scene of his labours. He was also treasurer of the Clergy Orphan School, which was, perhaps, of all his benevolent schemes, the one nearest to his heart. In 1820 he was with difficulty persuaded by his friend Van Mildert to accept the honorary degree of D.C.L. offered to him by the university of Oxford. His connection with Oxford brought him into contact with Charles Lloyd, the regius professor of divinity, afterwards bishop of Oxford, who said of him, 'I look upon Joshua as the best layman in England.' Some time before he had become associated, through his friend Wordsworth, with the archbishop of Canterbury (Charles Manners-Sutton), who appreciated his business talents. Button's successor, Archbishop Howley, had equal confidence in him. In 1828 he took a leading part in the foundation of King's College, London, and was a member of its first council. This brought him into communication with [q. v.], for whom he conceived unbounded admiration. In 1833, layman though he was, he had the task of revising the 'Clerical Address' to the archbishop of Canterbury, expressing attachment to the church, which was drawn up by William Palmer; the 'Lay Declaration,' which immediately followed, was entirely his composition. When the Additional Curates' Society was formed in 1837, Watson was the framer of its constitution and its first treasurer. In 1838 his only daughter, Mary Sikes Watson, married Henry Michell Wagner, vicar of Brighton, but she died, to her father's grief, two years later, leaving two sons. His wife died in 1831, and his only brother in 1839. After these losses he gave up his house in Park Street, and lived alternately at the house of his wife's sister at Clapton, and his brother's widow at Daventry. In 1842, owing to the infirmities of age, he resigned the treasurership of the National Society, but he still interested himself in religious and philanthropic work; and when the new missionary college