(dated 25 April 1748) are among the war office records. On 31 Dec. 1752 Watson was promoted to be engineer in ordinary. In 1754 he completed his great survey; and the original protractions of the north part of it, in eighty-four rolls, and of the south part in ten rolls, with various copies of the survey to a reduced scale, are in the British Museum. There also are preserved several mercator projections of North Britain, on which maps are indicated the posts in the highlands which were occupied or proposed for occupation by the regular troops. The revision and completion of the survey was contemplated in 1755, but prevented by the outbreak of war. The survey was eventually reduced by Watson and Roy, engraved in a single sheet, and published as ‘The King's Map.’
An alarm of invasion caused the recall of Watson and his assistants to England to make military reconnaissances of those parts of the country most exposed to such attack. Watson made a reconnaissance of the country between Guildford and Canterbury in December 1755, and early in 1756 of the country between Dorchester and Salisbury, and also between Gloucester and Pembroke. In March 1756, on an address of the House of Commons, Watson designed works for the defence of Milford Haven. He was examined by a committee of the House of Commons, and his projects were recommended to be put in hand to allay public alarm. Nothing, however, was done, and some years later other proposals by General William Skinner (1700–1780) [q. v.] were preferred. Watson's survey of Milford Haven, dated 3 March 1756, is in the British Museum (King's Library).
On 23 May Watson was appointed quartermaster-general of the forces for Scotland, with the rank of colonel of foot (Lond. Gaz. 12 June 1756). On 14 May 1757, when the engineers were reorganised, he became a captain of royal engineers.
On 21 April 1758 Watson was given the colonelcy of the 63rd foot, and was appointed quartermaster-general in the conjoint expedition, under the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Anson, and Admiral Howe, which sailed from Spithead for the French coasts on 1 June. He landed with the troops in Cancale Bay, near St. Malo, assisted on the following day in the destruction of shipping and magazines of naval stores in the suburbs, embarked again on the 11th, and, after ineffective visits to Havre and Cherbourg, returned to Portsmouth.
Watson then joined the allied army on the Rhine under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. He was appointed quartermaster-general on the staff of Lord George Sackville, commanding the British contingent, and in that capacity took part in all the operations of the campaigns of 1758 and 1759 in which the British were engaged. On 31 July 1759 he reconnoitred the country between the allied camp and Minden Heath, extending his reconnaissance beyond the village of Halen. He distinguished himself at the battle of Minden on 1 Aug., and on the following day was thanked in general orders for his bravery and able service. He was promoted to be major-general on 25 June 1759, but his promotion was not gazetted until 15 Sept. following.
On 23 Oct. 1760 Watson was transferred from the colonelcy of the 63rd foot to that of the 38th foot. He died in London on 7 Nov. 1761, while holding the appointment of quartermaster-general to the forces. His portrait, painted by A. Soldi, is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
[War Office Records; Royal Engineers Records; Gent. Mag. 1761; Connolly Papers; Porter's History of the Corps of Royal Engineers; Madden's Catalogue of manuscript maps and plans in the British Museum; Cust's Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century; Wright's Life of General Wolfe.]
WATSON, GEORGE (1723?–1773), divine, born in 1723 or 1724, was the son of Humphrey Watson of London. He matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 14 March 1739–40, graduating B.A. in 1743 and M.A. in 1746. He was elected to a scholarship on the Bennet foundation on 13 Dec. 1744, and was chosen on 27 Oct. 1747 to a fellowship on the same foundation, which he resigned on 20 March 1754. While at University College he was the tutor and friend of George Horne [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Norwich. Although little known to his contemporaries, he possessed solid learning and a sound judgment. Such eminent divines as Horne and William Jones of Nayland, who also knew him at Oxford, speak of his attainments in high terms. He held the theological opinions of John Hutchinson (1674–1737) [q. v.], to which he introduced Jones and Horne. Watson died on 16 April 1773. He was the author of: 1. ‘Christ the Light of the World,’ Oxford, 1750, 8vo. 2. ‘A Seasonable Admonition to the Church of England,’ Oxford, 1755, 8vo. 3. ‘Aaron's Intercession and Korah's Rebellion Considered,’ Oxford [1756], 8vo. 4. ‘The Doctrine of the Ever Blessed Trinity,’ London, 1756, 8vo. These four sermons were reprinted by John Matthew Gutch [q. v.] in 1860, under the title ‘Watson Redivivus’ (Oxford, 8vo).
