Author: Watson, Hugh
Biography:
WATSON, Hugh (1783-1843: findmypast.com)
Pseudonym “a Knight of the Hammer”
Watson’s only known publication, which appeared under a pseudonym, is a satire about auctioneers and their ilk published in Whitby, Yorkshire, in 1815. Watson had recently begun to ply that trade in the north of England—Durham, Darlington, York, Hull, etc. He was of a Quaker family, the son of Ann (Chapman) and Michael Watson born at Staindrop, Durham, on 3 May 1783. His parents had married at Whitby on 5 June 1782. With his younger brother Michael (b 1788) he first set up in business as a grocer and tea dealer in Newcastle, but about 1814 or 1815 started travelling as an auctioneer instead. On 15 Feb. 1819 he married Martha Evers at Doncaster, Yorkshire, and on 19 Feb. he was baptised into the Church of England at St. Olave’s, York. His baptism may have been a concession to his wife; in any case, he returned before long to the Quakers and his death on 22 Nov. 1843 was registered with them. The Watsons do not appear to have had any children. They settled in Hereford, Herefordshire, where he prospered as a “mercer and draper,” living alone with his wife according to the 1841 census. He was active in the abolitionist movement and other philanthropic causes, being described in a newspaper obituary as “one of the most intelligent and respectable of our fellow-citizens . . . ever ready to protect the oppressed” (Hereford Journal). (findmypast.com 26 Apr. 2024; Gideon Smales, Whitby Authors [1867], 61; Durham County Advertiser 6 May 1815; Hull Packet 11 Nov. 1817; York Herald 27 Nov. 1817; Hereford Journal 29 Nov. 1843) HJ