Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/30

 

WATSON, RICHARD (1737–1816), bishop of Llandaff, younger son of Thomas Watson (1672–1753), was born in August 1737 (baptised 25 Sept.) at Heversham, Westmoreland, where his father, a clergyman, was master (1698–1737) of the grammar school. Among his father's pupils was [q. v.] Watson got his schooling at Heversham; not from his father, who had resigned before his birth. On 3 Nov. 1754 he was admitted a sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge; 300l. left him by his father, provided for his education. The ‘blue worsted stockings and coarse mottled coat’ in which he came up were long a tradition at Cambridge. He early made a good impression by a clever criticism of an argument in Clarke on the ‘Attributes,’ and gained a scholarship on 2 May 1757, a year before the usual time, winning the special favour of the master, (1689–1768) [q. v.] He graduated B.A. in January 1759 as second wrangler. His examination entitled him to the first place, but ‘the talk about’ the injustice done him proved ‘more service than if’ he ‘had been made senior wrangler.’ On 1 Oct. 1760 he was elected fellow. In 1762 he proceeded M.A., was made moderator (10 Oct.) with [q. v.], and helped [q. v.] at a pinch by suggesting the insertion of a ‘non’ in his proposed thesis, ‘Æternitas pœnarum contradicit divinis attributis.’

On the death of [q. v.] in 1764 Watson was unanimously elected professor of chemistry by the senate on 19 Nov. His own statement is that he knew nothing of chemistry, ‘had never read a syllable on the subject, nor seen a single experiment;’ but he was ‘tired with mathematics and natural philosophy,’ and wanted ‘to try’ his ‘strength in a new pursuit.’ He sent to Paris for ‘an operator’ (Hoffman), ‘buried’ himself in his laboratory, and in fourteen months (during which he had shattered his workshop by an explosion) began a course of chemical lectures which were largely attended. At first awkward as an experimenter, he soon attained dexterity, and his annual courses of chemistry lectures attracted crowded audiences. He printed, but did not publish, his ‘Institutionum Chemicarum … Pars Metallurgica,’ Cambridge, 1768, 8vo (reprinted in Chemical Essays, vol. ii.), as a text-book for part of his course, and a contribution to the work of giving ‘a scientific form’ to chemistry. His ingenious memoir, ‘Experiments and Observations on various phænomena attending the solutions of salts,’ brought him a unanimous election (2 Feb. 1769) as fellow of the Royal Society, and was translated from the ‘Transactions’ (lx. 325) into French. In June and July 1772 he discovered that a thermometer gave a higher indication when the bulb was painted with Indian ink. This seems the origin of the black-bulb thermometer. The introduction of platinum, wrongly ascribed to him, belongs to [q. v.]

The chemistry chair was unendowed, and the university provided nothing but a lecture-room. Through the interest of his college friend, John Luther, with, second marquis of Rockingham [q. v.], and his own persistence with Newcastle, Watson obtained from the crown (July 1766) a stipend of 100l. during his tenure of the chair, refusing to have it settled on him for life. Besides chemistry he studied anatomy and practised dissection.

The death (5 Oct. 1771) of [q. v.] left vacant the regius chair of divinity, which ‘had long been the secret object’ of Watson's ambition. He was, however, not qualified for candidature, having no degree in divinity. ‘By hard travelling and some adroitness’ he obtained the king's mandate, and was created D.D. on 14 Oct., the day before the examination of the candidates. He was unanimously elected (31 Oct.), and entered upon office on 14 Nov. The rectory of Somersham, Huntingdonshire, went with the chair.

At the end of the year he printed ‘an essay,’ already in the press, ‘On the Subjects of Chemistry and their general divisions,’ 1771, 8vo, followed by his ‘Plan of Chemical Lectures,’ 1771, 8vo, intending these as taking leave of the science. His ‘Essay’ was described in the ‘Journal Encyclopédique’ as indebted to D'Holbach's ‘Système de la Nature’ (1770), a work which Watson had never seen. For some years he kept his resolution to abandon chemistry; but in 1781 he published a first volume of ‘Chemical Essays,’ followed at intervals by four others. The first two volumes were translated into German by F. A. Gallisch, Leipzig, 1782, 8vo. In the preface to the fourth volume (9 Feb. 1786), he announces that he had ‘destroyed all’ his ‘chemical manuscripts,’ intimating that this was ‘a sacrifice to other people's notions’ of the proper occu-