Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/46

 (1656–1740) [q. v.], whom he wished to make his chaplain (, Lit. Anecd. v. 107). During his lifetime he bestowed many benefactions on St. John's College, including the advowson of the three livings of Fulbourn St. Vigors, and Brinkley in Cambridgeshire, and Brandesburton, near Beverley in Yorkshire. He also founded a hospital at Hull, which was further endowed by his brother, William Watson.

Many points in Watson's conduct during his tenure of the see of St. David's were undoubtedly discreditable, and his general character was painted in the blackest colours by his enemies. It is said that when his nephew, Medley, blundered while conducting the service in the cathedral, Watson scandalised the congregation with ‘two loud God dammes.’ Much of the evidence on which the charge of simony was based was of a questionable character, and the court, in which Burnet was a coadjutor, displayed too much party feeling to allow confidence in the impartiality of its findings. The different treatment meted out to the Jacobite Watson and the whig (1641–1703) [q. v.], bishop of Llandaff, was very remarkable. Jones was clearly convicted of entering into simoniacal contracts, more heinous than any of those charged against Watson, but his only punishment was suspension for less than a year. Burnet casuistically defended the inconsistency by saying that, while Watson was convicted of simony, Jones was only found guilty of simoniacal practices; for Watson took bribes himself, while Jones received them through his wife. Shippen remarked that Archbishop Tenison

(Faction Display'd, 1704, p. 5).



WATSON, THOMAS (d. 1744), captain in the navy, may very possibly, as Charnock supposes, have served as a midshipman with (1684–1757) [q. v.], perhaps in the Grafton. The only mention of him now to be found is as first lieutenant of the Antelope in 1733, till his promotion on 7 Oct. 1737 to be captain of the Antelope. On 10 July 1739 he was appointed to the Burford as Vernon's flag-captain, and acted in that capacity at the reduction of Porto Bello. In January 1740–1 he moved with Vernon to the Princess Caroline, was flag-captain during the abortive attack on Cartagena, and in June 1741 moved again with Vernon to the Boyne, in which he returned to England in December 1742. In September 1743 he was appointed to the 70-gun ship Northumberland, which in the following spring was one of the fleet sent out to Lisbon under the command of Sir (the elder) [q. v.] On the homeward voyage at daybreak on 8 May the Northumberland, looking out ahead, was ordered by signal to chase a strange sail seen to the northward. She did not come up with it, and did not obey her recall, which was made about two o'clock. The weather got thick and squally; she lost sight of the fleet; then of the chase; but about four o'clock sighted three ships to the leeward, that is in the east quarter, the wind being westerly. Towards these strangers the Northumberland ran down. They lay-to to wait for her; it was seen that they were French and that two of them were ships of 64 guns; the third was a 26-gun frigate. One of the 64-gun ships, the Content, was about a mile to windward of her consort, the Mars; and if Watson had engaged her, he might possibly have disabled her before the Mars could come to her support. It was clearly the only sane thing to do, if he refused to accept the advice offered by the master and endeavour to lead the Frenchmen back to Hardy's fleet.

But Watson was in no humour to follow advice or plan which savoured of caution. While with Vernon he must have been a capable officer; but since then, it is said, his skull had been fractured in a fall, ‘and a small matter of liquor rendered him quite out of order—which was his unhappy fate that day’ (A True and Authentick 