Robert Watson (c.1730–1781) was a Scottish minister and academic, known as a historian.

Life

The son of an apothecary and brewer in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's four ...

, Watson was born there about 1730. After studying at St Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, he was licensed as a preacher; but having failed to obtain a presentation to one of the churches in St. Andrews, he was shortly afterwards appointed professor of logic in St. Salvator's College. There he was promoted to be principal in 1777. The same year he was also presented by George III to the church and parish of St. Leonard. Watson died on 31 March 1781.

Works

In 1777 Watson published ''History of Philip II of Spain'' (London, 2 vols.) Praised by

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

, it had publishing success: translated into French, German, and Dutch, it also reached a seventh edition by 1812. At the time of his death he was working on a ''History of the Reign of Philip III'': it was completed by William Thomson, and published in 1783 (London; revised editions 1808 and 1839; French translation 1809). John Stuart Mill, discussing his childhood reading, wrote, " ...but my greatest delight, then and for long afterwards, was Watson's ''Philip the Second'' and ''Third''."Mill. "Autobiography". Library of Liberal Arts, 1957, p.7.

Family

Watson married, on 29 June 1757, Margaret Shaw, by whom he left five daughters.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Robert 1730 births 1781 deaths Alumni of the University of St Andrews Principals of the University of St Andrews 18th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland 18th-century Scottish historians Writers from St Andrews