Author: Watson, James
Biography:
WATSON, James (1775-1820: “Memoir”)
The Spirit of the Doctor was published with an introductory memoir signed “D. W. P.” and dated 1 Aug. 1820 from Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire. It tells a complicated and sad story; very few of the details can be corroborated by public records, but there seems no reason to doubt them. James Watson was a native of Manchester, Lancashire, one of at least two sons of John and Martha Watson. His father was an apothecary. He was born in 1775 and educated at a dameschool and an English Academy, followed by a short period at the Manchester Free Grammar School. His formal education ended when he was apprenticed to a fustian manufacturer 1789-92, after which he was employed as a bookkeeper in a cotton factory. On the death of his father, his mother took over the business of the pharmacy with James as her assistant but he was a reluctant one, preferring to write, perform in private theatricals, and socialise with actors and wits. A local newspaperman arranged for him to edit a periodical miscellany, The Gleaner, and in 1804 he began to produce theatre reviews under the pen-name “The Townsman.” In 1806 he had the great good fortune to be chosen as librarian of the newly built Portico, a private subscription library that is still operating today (2024): clients gave him the nickname “the little doctor.” If there had been a “big doctor,” it would have been the first chairman of the Portico, John Ferriar MD (q.v.), author of the Illustrations of Sterne (1798). On the death of his mother—perhaps in 1811--Watson sold the business and began to neglect his duties; eventually he lost his job. He also failed as an usher at a boarding school and lived thereafter from hand to mouth, depending on the kindness of friends, occasional contributions to periodicals such as the Manchester Magazine, and scrapbooks that he made up out of clippings and sold for a guinea or two. He drowned in the River Mersey on 24 June 1820 during an excursion; his body was recovered on 28 June and buried at St. James, Didsbury. According to the editors of the posthumous collection of his anecdotes, verses, and essays, Watson had been a “sprightly and ingenious” man: adopting a Shandean theme, they refer him as “Yorick.” (D. W. P. “Memoir,” The Spirit of the Doctor [1820]; findmypast.com 27 Apr. 2024; ancestry.com 27 Apr. 2024) HJ