Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/73

 der Chemie,’ a work which occupied much of his time till 1872, when the last of its eighteen volumes appeared. On 17 Dec. 1849 he was elected editor of the Chemical Society's ‘Journal,’ and about the beginning of 1860 he also became librarian to the society. Early in 1871 it was decided to print in the society's journal abstracts of all papers on chemistry appearing in full elsewhere. In February 1871 a committee was appointed to superintend the publication of the journal and these summaries, but the scheme ‘very soon proved to be unworkable, and the revision of the abstracts was left entirely in the hands of &hellip; Watts, with the most satisfactory results.’ The abstracts in the ‘Journal’ may be regarded as models, and the success of this scheme must be attributed to Watts. In 1858 he was engaged by Messrs. Longmans & Co. to prepare a new edition of the ‘Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy’ of [q. v.]; but, finding this book too much out of date, he transformed it, with the help of a numerous and distinguished staff, into a real encyclopædia of chemical science. The first edition of Watts's ‘Dictionary of Chemistry,’ in five volumes, was completed in 1868; supplements were published in 1872, 1875, and 1879–81. A new edition, revised and entirely rewritten by Professor M. M. Pattison Muir and Dr. H. Forster Morley, was published 1888–94, 4 vols. 8vo. The dictionary contains excellent summaries of the facts and theories of chemistry, presented in an unusually readable and attractive form. In 1866 Watts was elected F.R.S., and in 1879 he was elected fellow of the Physical Society.

Watts died on 30 June 1884. He had married in 1854 Sophie, daughter of M. Henri Hanhart, of Mülhausen in Alsace, by whom he had eight sons and two daughters.

Besides the works mentioned above, Watts edited the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth editions of Fownes's ‘Manual of Chemistry.’ He was an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society and life-governor of University College, London.



WATTS, HUGH (1582?–1643), bell-founder, the second son of Francis Watts, bell-founder of Leicester (d. 1600), and sometime partner with the Newcombes, was born about 1582. His grandfather may have been the Hew Wat who in 1563 cast a bell for South Luffenham, Rutland.

In 1600, the year of his father's death, Watts cast for Evington in Leicestershire a bell bearing his own name and the shield with the device of three bells used by Francis Watts. The same device was borne by Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire bells made by a William Watts, and in 1450 by Richard Brayser of Norwich, to whom the original bell-founder Watts may have been apprenticed.

In 1611 Watts was admitted to the chapman's or merchant's guild; in 1620–1 he was elected chamberlain of the borough, and in 1633–4 mayor of Leicester (‘Payed to Mr. Hugh Watts maior for his yearly allowance according to the ancient order, 3l. 6s. 8d.’). A stately reception of Charles I and his queen on their progress in August 1634 marked the year of Watts's mayoralty.

There remain in the county of Leicester many examples of Watts's famous work, including several complete rings, admired for the beauty of their tone. The peal of ten bells for St. Margaret's, Leicester, was said to be the finest in England. His favourite inscription: ‘J. H. S.: Nazareus: rex: Iudeorum: Fili: Dei: miserere: mei:’ caused his bells to be called Watts's Nazarenes. He worked the bell-foundry of Leicester until his death, at the age of sixty, in February or March 1642–3, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Leicester. Shortly after the death of Watts the business was wound up and partly taken over by Nottingham founders. Watts's son, also named Hugh (1611–1656), to whom the bell-metal and bell-founding appliances were bequeathed, married a daughter of Sir Thomas Burton of Stockerston.



WATTS, ISAAC (1674–1748), hymn-writer, was born at Southampton on 17 July 1674. His grandfather, Thomas Watts, a commander of a man-of-war under Blake in 1656, died in the prime of life through an explosion on board his ship. His father, Isaac, occupied a lower position, being described as ‘a clothier’ of 21 French Street, Southampton (1719). As deacon of the independent meeting, he was imprisoned for his religious opinions in the gaol of Southampton at the time of the birth of his son Isaac and in the following year (1675). In 1685 also he was for the same cause obliged to hide in London for two years. In later years he kept a flourishing boarding-school at Southampton. He had a liking for the composition of sacred verses. One or two of his pieces appear in the posthumous works of his son (1779), and several others in that volume are