Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/76

 type which shrinks from the doctrine of reprobation. He held liberal views on education. His tolerance and love of comprehension degenerated at times into weakness; as in his proposal to unite the independents and baptists by surrendering the doctrine of infant baptism, if the baptists would give up immersion. His learning and piety attracted a large circle, including Doddridge, Lady Hertford (afterwards Duchess of Somerset), the first Lord Barrington, Bishop Gibson, Archbishop Hort, and Archbishop Secker. The university of Edinburgh gave him an honorary D.D. degree (1728). He died on 25 Nov. 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. A monument has been erected to him in Westminster Abbey; a statue in the park called often by his name at Southampton (1861); and another monument in the Abney Park cemetery, once the grounds of Lady Abney's house (1846). His portrait, painted by Kneller, and another drawn and engraved from the life in mezzotint by George White, are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. An anonymous portrait and a bust are in Dr. Williams's Library. There is a portrait of him in wig and gown and bands as a young man in the Above Bar chapel, Southampton. These are engraved in the ‘Life’ by Paxton Hood (cf., Cat. of Engraved Portraits).

Besides those of Watts's publications already mentioned, the following are the chief: 1. ‘The Knowledge of the Heavens and Earth,’ 1726. 2. ‘Essays towards the Encouragement of Charity Schools among the Dissenters,’ 1728. 3. ‘Philosophical Essays,’ 1733. 4. ‘Reliquiæ Juveniles,’ 1734. 5. ‘Works,’ edited by Jennings and Doddridge, 1753. 6. ‘Posthumous Works’ (compiled from papers in possession of his immediate successor), 1779. 7. ‘A Faithful Enquiry after the Ancient and Original Doctrine of the Trinity,’ ed. Gabriel Watts, 1802.

A collective edition of Watts's ‘Works,’ as edited by Jennings and Doddridge, with additions and a memoir by George Burder, appeared in six folio volumes in 1810.

[Watts's Works; Memoirs by Thomas Gibbons, D.D., 1780; Milner's Life, 1834; Hood's Life, 1875; Notes and Queries, 9th ser. iv. 433; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology, arts. ‘Watts,’ ‘Psalters English,’ and ‘Early English Hymnology.’] 

WATTS, JANE (1793-1826), author. [See under .]

WATTS, JOHN (d. 1616), merchant and shipowner, the son of Thomas Watts of Buntingford, Hertfordshire, was owner of the Margaret and John, one of the ships set forth and paid by the city of London in 1588 against the Spanish armada. Watts himself served in her as a volunteer, and was in the hottest of the fighting. In 1590 the same ship was one of a fleet of merchantmen coming home from the Mediterranean which fought and beat off the Spanish galleys near Cadiz. It does not appear that Watts was then in her; but throughout the war he seems to have taken an active part in the equipment of privateers. Mention is made of one which in July 1601 took into Plymouth a prize coming from the Indies laden with China silks, satins, and taffetas. At this time he was an alderman of London (Tower ward), and had been suspected of being a supporter of Essex. He was one of the founders of the East India Company, and on 11 April 1601 was elected governor of it, during the imprisonment of Sir Thomas Smith or Smythe (1558?–1625) [q. v.] On the accession of James I he was knighted 26 July 1603 (, Book of Knights), and was lord mayor in 1606–7 (, Citizens and their Rulers, p. 232), at which time he was described in a letter (30 April 1607, N.S.) to the king of Spain as ‘the greatest pirate that has ever been in this kingdom’ (, Genesis of the United States, p. 99). During the following years he was an active member of the Virginia Company. In the city of London Watts was a member of the Clothworkers' Company.

Watts died at his seat in Hertfordshire in September 1616, and was buried on the 7th of that month at Ware. By his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir James Hawes, knt. (lord mayor in 1574), he left four sons and four daughters. The eldest son, John, served in the Cadiz expedition and was knighted for his good service in 1625; he subsequently served under Buckingham in the Rhé expedition, and under Count Mansfeldt in the Palatinate; he married Mary, daughter of Thomas Bayning, and aunt of Paul, first viscount Bayning, and left numerous issue. His eldest son (grandson of the lord mayor), who also became Sir John Watts, served an apprenticeship in arms under his father. He was knighted in 1642, and received a commission to raise a troop of arms for the king. Having been expelled from the governorship of Chirk Castle, he attached himself to the fortunes of Lord Capel, and was one of the defenders of Colchester Castle (August 1648). He compounded for delinquency by paying the moderate fine of 100l., and was discharged on 11 May 1649; however, he was forced to sell to [Sir] John Buck his manor of Mardocks in Ware. After the Restoration he was made receiver for Essex and Hertfordshire. He died about