Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/8

 man of the House of Commons' committee on the regency bill in 1788.

On 2 March 1793 he was appointed commissary-general to the Duke of York's army in Flanders, and resigned his seat in parliament. He served with the army till it returned to England in 1795. Many of his letters are to be found in the war office papers (original correspondence) in the public record office. Lord Liverpool spoke of him as ‘one of the most honourable men ever known’ (Wellington Despatches, Supplementary, ix. 428).

Watson was elected lord mayor of London in November 1796. His year of office was a troubled one. At a common hall on 12 April 1797 a resolution was brought forward ‘to investigate the real cause of the awful and alarming state of public affairs.’ He ruled this out of order, and closed a heated discussion by having the mace taken up. At another hall, on 11 May, he was censured, and a resolution was passed denouncing the ministry for having plunged the country into an unnecessary and unjust war; but he had many supporters.

On 24 March 1798 he was appointed commissary-general to the forces in Great Britain, and on 5 Dec. 1803 he was made a baronet, with remainder to his nephews. He died at East Sheen, Surrey, on 2 Oct. 1807, and was buried at Mortlake. He married, in 1760, Helen, daughter of Colin Campbell, a goldsmith of Edinburgh, but he had no children, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his great-nephew, William Kay.

[Gent. Mag. 1807, ii. 987; Welch's Modern Hist. of the City of London; Betham's Baronetage, 1805, v. 540.]  WATSON, CHARLES (1714–1757), rear-admiral, born in 1714, was son of Dr. John Watson, prebendary of Westminster (d. 1724). His maternal grandfather was Alexander Parker [q. v.], whose wife Prudence was mother (by her first marriage) of Admiral Sir Charles Wager [q. v.], and daughter of William Goodson, presumably Goodsonn [q. v.], the parliamentary admiral. Watson entered the navy in 1728 as a volunteer per order on board the Romney, with Captain Charles Brown [q. v.]; in the end of 1730 he joined the Bideford with Captain Curtis Barnett [q. v.], and passed his examination on 31 Jan. 1734–5. As the nephew of the first lord of the admiralty, he passed rapidly through the subordinate ranks, and on 14 Feb. 1737–8 was posted to the Garland, a 20-gun frigate attached to the fleet in the Mediterranean under the command of Rear-admiral Nicholas Haddock [q. v.] In 1741 he was moved by Haddock into the Plymouth of 60 guns, and in November 1742, by Mathews, into the Dragon, which he commanded, though without particular distinction, in the action off Toulon on 11 Feb. 1743–4 (Narrative of the Proceedings of his Majesty's Fleet in the Mediterranean .... by a Sea Officer, p. 60). On his return to England early in 1746 he was appointed to the Advice, and from her to the Princess Louisa, which he commanded in the following year in the engagements off Cape Finisterre on 3 May, and in the Bay of Biscay on 14 Oct. [see ; ], in both of which, under a capable commander, he showed that he was quite ready to fight if only he understood what he was to do. In January 1747–8 he was appointed to the Lion, in which in March he was sent out as commander-in-chief on the Newfoundland and North American station, with a broad pennant as an established commodore. On 12 May he was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue, and in February 1754 was appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies.

He sailed shortly afterwards in the Kent, with three other ships of the line, and for the first year was on the Coromandel coast, keeping a watch on the French. In November 1755 he went round to Bombay, whence in February 1756, in company with the vessels of the Bombay marine under Commodore (Sir) William James [q. v.] and a body of troops commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Robert Clive (afterwards Lord Clive) [q. v.], he went to Gheriah, the stronghold of the pirate Angria. On the sea face the batteries were very formidable, but Watson, forcing his way into the harbour, was able to take them in the rear, while the troops cut off the retreat of the garrison, which surrendered after an obstinate but ineffective resistance for twenty-four hours. The power of the pirates was broken, and their accumulated stores and treasure fell into the hands of the captors. After refitting his ships at Bombay, Watson sailed for St. David's in the end of April, and at Madras had news of the tragedy of the black hole of Calcutta. In consultation with Clive, then governor of St. David's, it was determined to punish Suráj ud Dowlah. By the middle of October the preparations were completed, and Watson sailed for the Húgli, carrying with him Clive and his small army. On 4 June he had been promoted to the rank of vice-admiral.

After many delays he arrived in the river on 15 Dec.; on the 29th the walls of Budge Budge were breached, and during the night