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Watson board of ordnance a plan of Port Royal with its fortifications, and himself returned to England in the autumn of 1744. He was promoted to be captain-lieutenant in Harrison's foot on 24 Dec. 1745.

On 30 April 1746 Watson joined the conjoint expedition under Admiral Richard Lestock [q. v.] and Lieutenant-general St. Clair for North America. Its destination, however, was changed for the coast of Brittany, and he took part in the siege of Port L'Orient from 20 to 27 Sept., and the attack on Quiberon and capture of forts Houat and Heydie, after which he returned to England with the expedition. He was promoted on 2 Jan. 1748 to be sub-director of engineers, and appointed chief engineer in the Medway division, which included Gravesend and Tilbury, Sheerness, Harwich, and Landguard forts. There is a plan in the war office drawn by Watson, dated 1752, showing the cliff and town of Harwich and the encroachments of the sea since 1709; and another, dated 1754, of a proposed breakwater at Harwich Cliff; also a plan of Sheerness and its vicinity, indicating the boundaries of public lands.

On 17 Dec. 1754 Watson was promoted to be director of engineers, and was sent to Annapolis Royal as chief engineer of Nova Scotia and of the settlements in Newfoundland. His stay in North America at this time was short, as he was specially selected for service on the west coast of Africa, where he arrived before December 1755. An address to the king had been carried in the House of Commons on the defenceless state of the British possessions on the west coast of Africa, and Watson visited the military stations along the Gold Coast at Whydah, James's Island, Accra, Prampram, Tantumquerry, Winnebah, Annamaboe, Secondee, Dixcove, and Cape Coast Castle. He returned to England in the summer of 1756, when his reports and plans were approved and the House of Commons voted money to carry out his proposals.

In October and November 1756 Watson examined Rye harbour and reported on the measures necessary to improve it; and towards the end of the year again sailed for Annapolis Royal to resume his appointment as chief engineer in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. On 14 May 1757 he was commissioned, on the reorganisation of the engineers, as lieutenant-colonel of royal engineers. He died suddenly in the summer of 1757 from the effects of poison administered in his coffee, it was believed, by a black female servant.

Watson's widow, Susan, was granted a pension of 40l. a year from 1 Jan. 1758 in consideration of her husband's services.

[War Office Records; Royal Engineers Records; Kane's List of Officers of the Royal Artillery; Porter's History of the Corps of Royal Engineers; Connolly Papers; Gent. Mag. 1741; Cust's Annals of the Wars.]  WATSON, LEWIS, first  (1584–1653), baptised in Rockingham church on 14 July 1584, was the elder son of Sir Edward Watson (d. 1 March 1615–16), by his wife Anne (d. 1611), daughter of Kenelm Digby of Stoke Dry, Rutland. The family of Watson was first established in Rockingham Castle about 1584, under Edward Watson (d. 1584), Lewis's grandfather. Lewis matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, on 24 May 1599, and in 1601 was entered as a student at the Middle Temple. On 19 Aug. 1608 he was knighted by James I. He was at that time a constant attendant at court, where he formed a fast friendship with George Villiers (afterwards Duke of Buckingham), and some years later became his security for a large sum of money. On 19 Sept. 1611 he received license to travel (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18, p. 75). In 1614 he was returned to parliament for Lincoln, a borough for which he also sat in the parliaments summoned in 1621 and 1624. On 21 July 1619 he received Rockingham Castle in fee simple, having previously held it on knight's service. On 23 June 1621 he was created a baronet, and on 16 Feb. 1627–8 was included among those to whom an order of the privy council was addressed, directing them to prepare commissions of martial law and of oyer and terminer for the county of Northampton (ib. 1627–8, p. 567). In 1632–3 he filled the office of sheriff of Northamptonshire; in 1634 he obtained the mastership of the royal buckhounds; and in 1638 he became verderer of Rockingham and Brigstock.

On the outbreak of the civil war Sir Lewis sided with the king, though his zeal does not seem to have been very ardent, as he was summoned before the council by a warrant dated 11 Sept. 1640 as a delinquent for failing ‘to show a horse’ at the muster at Huntingdon (ib. 1640 p. 610, 1640–1 pp. 45, 85). Before Rockingham Castle could receive a royal garrison, it was seized on 19 March 1642–3 by Thomas Grey, baron Grey of Groby [q. v.], who placed in it a parliamentary force. In May 1643 Sir Lewis himself was arrested by the royalist colonel Henry Hastings (afterwards Lord Loughborough) [q. v.] on the charge of neglecting to hold Rockingham for the king,