John Fanning Watson (June 13, 1779 - December 23, 1860) was a

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

antiquarian, a chronicler and a historian who became a professional writer. In 1830, he authored ''Annals of Philadelphia''.

Biography

A bookseller, then a bank cashier by trade, he worked for the Germantown Bank, and Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad. As a young man he began gathering the reminiscences of elderly people, and collected them in the first major history of the city. ''Annals of Philadelphia'' was published in 1830, with expanded editions in 1844 (two volumes) and 1857. A third volume by Willis P. Hazard was added in 1879, and the set continued to be published into the early 20th century. Watson hired a British immigrant, William L. Breton, to illustrate the 1830 ''Annals''. Based on Watson's own sketches, Breton's lithographed illustrations included the first published images of

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

's President's House (demolished two years later), of the State House Tavern opposite

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the Founding Fathers of ...

, and of a slave auction at the London Coffee House. Later editions of the ''Annals'' copied these lithographs as woodcuts, and then engravings. A scrapbook of Watson's notes for the 1830 ''Annals'' is housed at the

Library Company of Philadelphia The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) is a non-profit organization based on Locust Street in Center City, Philadelphia, Center City Philadelphia. Founded as a library in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company of Philadelphia has a ...

. It includes such curiosities as squares of fabric cut from dresses worn by Philadelphia ladies at the "Mesquianza", an elaborate May 1778 pageant and ball hosted by British officers during the Revolutionary War occupation of the city. He also published ''Historic Tales of Olden Time of New York City and State'' (New York, 1832), ''Historic Tales of Olden Time of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania'' (Philadelphia, 1833), and ''Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State'' (New York, 1846), among others. He was a passionate advocate for preserving historic buildings. He urged the preservation of the Slate Roof House, a 1687 building that had housed Pennsylvania's founder,

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

from 1699 to 1701, and served as the government offices for the Colony from 1699 to 1704. That fight was lost, but the shock of the building's 1867 demolition — after Watson's death — helped spark a historic preservation movement in Philadelphia. While Watson is readable, he is not always reliable, and his carelessness about citing sources is a frustration to scholars. Still, it is because of him that we have the first-person accounts of people such as "Black Alice", an enslaved African woman reputedly born in Philadelphia 1686, who lived to age 116, and claimed to remember William Penn.

References

Bibliography

*Benjamin Dorr, ''Memoir of John Fanning Watson'' (Philadelphia, 1861). *Joseph Jackson, "John Fanning Watson," ''Encyclopedia of Philadelphia'' (Harrisburg, PA: 1931), pp. 1175–77. *Deborah Dependahl Waters, "Philadelphia's Boswell: John Fanning Watson," ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 98, (January 1974), pp. 3–52.

Biography

References

Bibliography

External links