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

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

antiquarian, a chronicler and an historian who became a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and sk ...

writer. He is best known as the author of ''Annals of Philadelphia'' (1830).

Life

A bookseller, then a bank cashier by trade, he worked for the

Bank of Germantown A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, 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. PhiladelphiaPresidentsHouse

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's President's House (demolished two years later), of the State House Tavern (opposite Independence Hall), 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. 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. Fitch Steamboat-JSG

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 The Slate Roof House was a mansion that stood on 2nd Street north of Walnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from about 1687 until its demolition in 1867. Built for Barbadian Quaker merchant Samuel Carpenter, the house occupied a small hill ...

, a 1687 building that had housed Pennsylvania's founder,

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

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.

Life

References

Bibliography

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