Watson, Richard (1760-1817)

Comments

VENN
Adm. sizar (age 17) at TRINITY, Nov. 2, 1754. [Youngest] s. of [the Rev.] Thomas, of Heversham, Westmorland. [B. there, Aug. 1737.] School, Heversham. ' Matric. Lent, 1755; Scholar, 1757; B.A. (2nd Wrangler) 1759; M.A. 1762; D.D. (per Lit. Reg.) 1771. Fellow, 1760; Tutor, 1767-71; Junior Dean, 1769-71. Professor of Chemistry, 1764-73. Regius Professor of Divinity, 1771-1816. F.R.S., 1769. Ord. priest (Norwich) Feb. 28, 1768. R. of Northwold, Norfolk, 1779-81. R. of Knaptoft, Leics., 1781. R. of Somersham, Hunts. Archdeacon of Ely, 1779-82. Bishop of Llandaff, 1782-1816. He stated that he 'knew as much of divinity as could reasonably be expected of a man whose course of studies had been directed to, and whose time had been fully occupied in, other pursuits',but the Regius chair had 'long been the secret object' of his ambition, and, 'by hard travelling and some adroitness', he obtained the King's mandate and was created D.D. in time for the election. Edited a Collection of Theological Tracts. Appointed as his deputy, 1787, Thomas Kipling, of St John's, the editor of the Codex Bezae, and left Cambridge. On election to the chair of Chemistry, having 'never read a syllable on the subject nor seen a single experiment', he sent to Paris for an 'operator', shut himself up in his laboratory and in 14 months, in the course of which his workshop was shattered by an explosion, he began a course of lectures which were largely attended. His experiments led to the invention of the black-bulb thermometer. Said to have saved the Government £100,000 a year by advice on the manufacture of gunpowder. Married Dorothy Wilson, of whom there is a portrait by John Downman in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Author, Chemical Essays. Died July 4, 1816. Father of Charles L (1791) and the next. (E. H. Vigers; The Extraordinary Black Book, 1830; G. Mag., II. 1816, 274; Hist. Reg.; Wordsworth, Anecdotes of Richard Watson; Gunther, Camb. Science; Gunning, Reminiscences, I. 232-6; D.N.B.)

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