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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Essex => Topic started by: queencorgi1 on Friday 05 December 14 10:59 GMT (UK)
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Lieutenant George Watson of the 3rd Light Dragoons, born 1785, claimed his father Captain Thomas Creswick Watson (born 1770) came from 'an old Essex country family'. I can't find any Watsons which fit the bill, does anyone else know better?
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THere is a Will for Thomas Cresswick Watson Esquire
5 May 1831
You should be able to see it if you have access to Ancestry - (free at many local libraries) or I would imagine it is on the National Archives site and can be downloaded for a small fee (I havent looked)
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A quick look at reveals he had a wife Rebecca and a son George.
NO mention of Essex - he seems to be from Sheffield, Wrexham and lately of MArylebone.
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Yes, I saw the will and his wife is Rebekah Hanson, born in Birmingham. Can't find anything else except the will though and no other relatives. Thank you for your thoughts.
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Thomas Creswick son of Paul WATSON, scrivener, was baptised in Sheffield on 20 June 1770.
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It looks as though Paul Watson of Rotherham and Susanna Creswick/Cresswick of Sheffield married by licence at Rotherham on 6 Feb 1768:
www.mocavo.com/Yorkshire-Marriage-Registers-West-Riding-Volume-I/534814/236
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Thank you so much! That's amazing! And an interesting rise in the social scale for Thomas, if his father was a scrivener ...
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Was George definitely born in 1785 - only 15 years after his father's baptism?
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Duh!
No, slip of the finger -- 1795.
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Apparently Paul the scrivener (scribe) did not teach Thomas the important lesson that a will must be witnessed in order to be valid! An executor is also required. You will have seen that in the absence of an executor the will was not admitted to probate, but administration was granted to Rebecca (with the will attached) on the basis of two independent people's testimony after his death that they believed the handwriting etc was his.
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Thomas's burial record (29 Apr 1831, St Marylebone) shows his address as Old Cavendish St.
He was aged "59" at death - must have been at least 60 in fact (baptised 60 yrs and 10 months before burial). No big deal but it does suggest he was baptised as an infant rather than as an older child.
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Dear avm
Thank you for explaining the will! I was rather baffled when I saw it with the extra depositions on the end. Unless I am missing something, he doesn't actually state what he owns, does he? Anyway, no sign of any Essex connection, it's all north of England. Perhaps the newspaper obituary of his grandson (which is where the Essex quote given above) shows a family belief that Essex was posher?
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that Essex was posher?
Plenty of posh areas in Essex!
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I know, I went to school in Saffron Walden and grew up in Roydon!
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The will is odd in many ways - it was dated 1829 so was not written on his deathbed (which often caused difficulties with formalities). It was also not properly constituted as to the residual legacy after the deaths of Rebecca and George because it required George to "bequeath" the property. It did not name any executors. And as you say the will as transcribed in the PCC entry seems to start in the middle - it refers to "the interest and rents of the above" without stating what the "above" property was. Perhaps there was a page or two missing!
Maybe a DIY job - still a problem to this day :)
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Indeed, very weird.
Still, as you say possibly DIY or perhaps very bored PCC clerk just skipped a bit ...
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Or a page fell out on to the floor at some point at ended up in the bin . . . or put back in a different place and someone elses Will makes no sense at all because it has an extra page in it that doesnt follow on!
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A very good point ... and one could search a long time looking for where that (possibly) misfiled page has got to!
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Hi-googling Thomas Creswick Watson, found this thread which may be out of date now. I am a descendant and have his portrait, as well as the 1811 commission when promoted to Captain. He did not come from Essex and the property mentioned in his will was near Wrexham.
His son Lieutenant George Watson went to Australia with his large family and a descendant produced a family tree in 1979, having tracked the progeny of all children. Think that Queencorgi1 mentioned a son Henry born in Nottingham(?) and that is very unlikely as George not there and no son called Henry. His children were all given the name Cobham in honour of their Grandmother's family.
Some other information I didn't know about. Thanks.
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Hi Jonson1
Henry Watson was a foreman carpenter and the direct ancestor of my husband. To my utter astonishment, when I obtained his marriage certificate (1859) I found that he had given his father's name as 'Lt George Watson of the 3rd Light Dragoons'. After more investigation I discovered that he and his two siblings George and Elizabeth Watson were all baptised in Radford, Notttinghamshire. Lt George Watson was named as their father in each case. Their mother was Mary Ann Wade, who was 19 when she gave birth to Elizabeth, her eldest child. Lt Watson was 36 and already had seven children with his wife. Throughout the 1830s the 3rd Light Dragoons, like other cavalry regiments, were not used to fight Britain's enemies but to control social unrest in Ireland, Scotland and northern England. In 1830 the regiment moved to Nottingham (Radford is very close by), and this probably when Lt Watson met Mary Ann. The following year the regiment moved to Piershill Barracks in Edinburgh. Both Henry and George Watson stated throughout their lives when filling in census returns that they were born in Scotland. Baptism does not have to follow immediately on birth, and what seems to have happened is that Mary Ann took the children back to her parents in Radford where they were baptised. In 1836 the regiment was posted to Ireland, and after this date I have found no trace of Mary Ann Wade. However, her three children remained with her parents. They all three learnt to read and write, and achieved reasonable success in life, good for the grandchildren of a farm labourer. George became a head gardener, Elizabeth a teacher and Henry a foreman carpenter. I think it's possible that Lt Watson arranged for regular payments to be paid to the Wades to support the children. In 1839, as you are aware, Lt Watson emigrated to Australia.
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Hi Queencorgi1
Your reply has given me a lot to take in! It really does look as if Lt George Watson (presumably there can't have been two Lt George Watsons in the 3rd Light Dragoons at that time) was fathering two families at the same time and I am sorry to have been a bit dismissive in my previous post. I have looked through your various threads on this subject and it does seem feasible with the various places the regiment was sent to. Coincidentally my grandmother on my father's side came from a Nottingham lace making family and her birth was registered at Radford.
George Watson was a gt gt gt grandfather on my mother's side and I have always been interested in him since John Watson did a family history, printed in 1979. A number of his dates have proved wrong and a lot more information has appeared and so I am started to update his history. Other descendants and myself have managed to find out so much more about him, his wife and his time in Australia. It all makes for a fascinating story. George fathering a second family in England/Scotland shouldn't surprise us as there is something that we haven't been able to understand about his second marriage and third family. John may have 'fudged' this by adjusting a few dates, but the documents, now seen, do not bear out his interpretation of events.
George Watson, his wife Ann Percival (nee Martyr) and 7 children set sail for Australia 8th April 1839 from Plymouth in the Strathfieldsaye. Her sister Mary Martyr accompanied them. The ship arrived in Sydney after a speedy voyage on the 25th July. Mary Martyr gave birth to a daughter, Ada Georgina Watson, on the 1st January 1840 (no certificate but entry in family bible). Ann Percival gave birth to her last child and my gt gt grandmother, Ellen Emma Cobham Watson, on the 8th September 1841 (certificate). Ann Percival Watson died 5th August 1843 at their home on the Manning River north of Sydney (announcement in paper). George Watson married Mary Martyr 31st October 1844 in Sydney (certificate) and she gave birth to a daughter Rose Bertha Watson the 11th or 14th January 1845 (christened 8th July 1845 in Sydney). Another son Albert was born in probably 1846, but we have not been able to find any reference to this.
For the past few years it has seemed to us that George was having an affair with his wife's sister, but we have been trying to find another explanation for this chronology. In light of your revelation, perhaps it was true! Whatever the truth, he was obviously respected as his son Joseph wrote in 1866 - "There were a great many people at the funeral. He was very much liked by everyone and will be very much missed, for he was like a King in Lexton. Everyone looked up to him".
George let very little money at his death and I think that it was unlikely that he was able to send money back to another family in England. In fact he nearly went bankrupt in the early years as he was unable to repay a loan for land in 1842. I wonder whether he kept touch with them.
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Hi Jonson1
Thank you for your most interesting post. Yes, it does sound plausible that George was something of a ladies' man, given the children's birthdates! One feels the atmosphere on board ship would have been pretty tense between the two sisters.
No, I don't think George would have kept in touch with his Nottinghamshire offshoots once he left, but I did think he might have left a lump sum with their grandparents which could have been used to pay a penny for Sunday school (often the only source of learning to read and write), or to buy tools, which for a carpenter in particular was a big investment.
In your previous post you mentioned a family estate near Wrexham. I couldn't take the Watsons further back than Paul Watson, father of Thomas Creswick Watson. Paul was the son of Robert and born in York in 1746, but that was the furthest I got. (As you will be aware, Paul became first a scrivener and then a tax collector in Lichfield. This was an important position at the time because smuggling was at its height.) If you know anything further back than Robert -- or anything about Robert -- I should be interested to know, just for the sake of completeness.
You may be amused to learn that my husband is also descended from Matthew Prizeman, who was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1850 and later settled with his family in New South Wales. In addition, I am descended from Henry Bull, transported to Melbourne in 1847, so therefore our children have three links with Australia!
Thank you again for your informative and fascinating post.
With very best wishes
queencorgi1
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Hi Queencorgi1
To try to answer your queries first. My information on Thomas Creswick Watson comes mostly from the research done by John Watson in the 1970s. He was with the Australian High Commission in London and used to come and stay with my family. He found that Thomas Watson retired to a small country house near Wrexham called Wynnstay Place (named after a neighbouring estate), before moving to Old Cavendish Street in London at the end of his life. When he died in 1831, the Wrexham property was valued at £3,200 and he also had nearly £4,000 invested in government bonds. He bequeathed this property to his wife for her lifetime and then to his son. She died in 1838 and this is presumably the time that George Watson began to think of a move to Australia. Perhaps he was able to provide some money for his illegitimate children at that time, as his finances would have been a bit stretched before then as a half pay officer.
I think that you know more about Thomas Watson's antecedents than I do, as I have been rather lazy about pursuing them. John said that 19th century Watsons in Australia adopted the crest and arms of a Watson family of Silsden in Yorkshire, but, without further research, this connection is doubtful. His first Watson is Paul Watson, father of Thomas, who he had down as being born in Rotherham in 1746 and married to Susanna Creswick, again at Rotherham, in February 1768. A number of children were born to this marriage, before Susanna died in 1786. Paul married again in 1787, Judith Wrigglesworth. For occupation, John has him down first as a scrivener, then as an excise officer in Sheffield (a slightly wider description than tax collector), and finally as a plater.
John only found one sibling for George Watson, a sister Susanna born in 1790 who married a Mr Beaumont of Sheffield. No further information and he even spelt Thomas's wife as Rebecca.
My researches have been more involved with George Watson and his descendants, and his wife Ann's family. The Martyrs were prominent builders and solicitors in Greenwich outside London and her mother's father, Thomas Cobham, had been a doctor in North Carolina before having to leave due to the American War of Independence. One of Ann's brothers, Alexander Cobham Martyr (later Cobham), inherited an estate and fortune from a Cobham cousin and my family are still in touch with his descendants. A sister, Cecilia Cobham Martyr, married the self styled Count Bertolacci who was Master of Horse to King Louis Philippe of France.
I wonder whether my gt gt grandmother, Ellen Emma Cobham Watson, knew of her half sisters and brothers in England. She was sent back to England for schooling and met her future husband, John Bell Chirnside, on the ship back to Australia in 1858. The Chirnsides had large land holdings in Victoria and my gt gt grandfather had a property at West Charlton which he managed in conjunction with some of his Watson brothers in law. Although he and his family moved to England in the 1860s, he later on had a station at Bealiba in Victoria which was not sold until 1907 after his death.
I guess that you live in Australia, but don't know which state.
With best wishes
Jonson1
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Hi Jonson1
Fascinating account of the Watson descendants, and it is interesting to learn more too about the Martyr family. I didn't know about Thomas's country house, and he was clearly very well off by the time he died. I agree with you, though -- I don't think the Watsons could boast any armorial connections!
No, I don't live in Australia, but in the UK.
With very best wishes
queencorgi1
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Hello, I am a descendant of George Watson. His son Alexander Cobham Watson was my great great grandfather. I have a very old large photo album from my family, but there are no names written on the photos. I hope someone might be able to help identify the photos. I have a very old photo which I think could be Alexander Cobham Watson holding a fluffy dog. Also, I have been to the grave of Alexander Cobham Watson, his wife Alice Hetherington and their son William Stanley Watson (my great grandfather) which is in Brighton Cemetery, Melbourne.
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Hi there! I started this thread off. I suspect the person most likely to help you is Jonson1 (see this thread), you could send a PM. Everything I have about the Watsons is (a) in this thread and (b) the wrong side of the blanket! Good luck with identifying your photographs.
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Welcome to RootsChat Deanna :)
queencorgi1 please remember that new members are not able to access the pm function until they have made a couple of posts.
I have just heard back that jonson has changed his contact details, I have updated his details and sent him an email to notify him of Deanna's reply.
Regards
Sarah
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Thanks Sarah for helping me get in touch with Jonson1. Thanks queencorgi1.
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Hi Sarah, sorry about that, my bad. I had not taken in that she was a new member. Thank you so much for making it possible for Deanna to contact Jonson1 should she wish to.
Once again also super thanks to all those who moderate and everyone who puts so much work into this wonderful website. Not only have members' contributions been invaluable to me but often very funny too.
Very best wishes
Queencorgi
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Hi DeannaB and queencorgi1
Thanks too from me to all who make these contacts possible.
Strangely I am working on this bit of the family at the moment and have been transcribing a couple of letters to and from Alexander Cobham Watson, and his son George. I assume from family trees drawn up by John Watson, another descendant of A C Watson, that you are the Deanna born in 1955. John used to come and stay with us in England while working on his history of the Watsons. Unfortunately I don't think I can help with the photos of A C Cobham, although he refers to photos that he is sending to our branch of the family. I can't identify them even though I have some old albums, which is annoying.
Alexander Cobham Watson had a great number of descendants as you will be aware and I am in touch with one or two of them, and hope that one will visit in June when in England. We are as you may have worked out descended from his youngest sister Ellen Emma Cobham Watson, born NSW in 1841, and are a much smaller family as there are descendants from only one of her grandchildren.
I am writing a piece on one of Alexander Cobham Watson's grandsons at this very moment, John Mervyn Hancock, son of Albert Hancock and Clara Margaret Watson. He was a mechanic, born c1894 in Australia, and enlisted in 1915 to come over to Europe. In 1917 he joined the Royal Flying Corps, later the RAF, and became a pilot, eventually being attached to the Training squadron at Northolt, near London. He spent time with my family while in England and obviously got on well with my grandmother and great aunt, second cousins. I have the centre of a 1914 plane prop that he gave my great aunt, which obviously inspired her as she got her pilot's license in 1930. On Saturday Feb 2nd 1919, he took my grandmother to the Northolt dance where they were until 3.00am and the following day:-
"Didn't get to bed until 4.30. Stayed in bed all morning. Jack rang up and I went out to Northolt with him and his brother and FLEW!! Too glorious - I simply loved every minute and wasn't a bit frightened, and we looped four times and did all sorts of things and it was too heavenly. All snowy everywhere. Motored back with a friend of Jack's, so it was all splendid. So sleepy tonight"
The tragedy is that a month later he was dead. On the 1st March 1919, his plane caught fire over Richmond Park, London, and he bailed out, it is thought to try and drop into the pond there or the Thames. He was buried a week later at Ruislip, with his uncle George there and my great grandmother, grandmother and other English relatives there. I have the newspaper cutting about the accident and funeral and a photo of the grave. It is exactly a hundred years since these events and it is perhaps the moment to remember him. He would have been a first cousin of your grandfathers I think.
Sorry I can't help you about the photos.
Best wishes
Jonson1
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Hi Jonson1
Thank you for a fascinating post and particularly for the interesting account of the young pilot. Very tragic.
The Watson family has clearly got many interesting individuals amongst its members. Since I first posted this thread my husband (who was of course the Watson descendant for whom I was compiling information) died of cancer after a very short illness. You may like to know that he was a leading designer of radar for satellites, working for the European Space Agency.
Very best wishes
Queencorgi
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Hi Jonson1 & queencorgi1,
John Watson came to visit my father when he was writing his history of the Watson family and I also have a copy of it. I was only about 13 when he came to our house, but I remember his visit. Maybe he sparked my interest in ancestry. Unfortunately now my parents have departed and I wish I had sat down with them and found out more information and looked at the old photos with them. Now there are so many mysteries and unnamed photos I can't identify.
It is fascinating to think there are many distant relatives also interested in our family history.
I get a bit bamboozled with it all though as they all had so many children in those days. It must have been so hard for them.
As I have visited the grave of my gg grandparents Alexander Cobham Watson and Alice Hetherington and my great grandfather William Stanley Watson, I am eager to find out more about them and other ancestors. My father's father fought with the A.I.F. in France in World War 1 and I have transcribed all his letters to his mother, but there is no mention at all of his father William Stanley Watson. I would appreciate any information you could give me. I'm not sure how private messaging works here, but if it's possible I would welcome your information.
My mother's family history is also intriguing and my nephew is currently making a film about her and her family.
Best wishes for your research.
Kind regards,
Deanna
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Wishing you every success with your research, Deanna!
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Thanks queencorgi1. All the best to you too.
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Hi DeannaB and Queencorgi1
Thanks for your replies. Like you Deanna, I am sometimes mesmerised by the number of children that the Watson clan had in Australia and have to study John's family trees very carefully to work out who belonged to who. We, who are descended from Ellen Emma Cobham Watson, are a small family by comparison. What is surprising is how many of them kept in touch after so long. Our family have always been in touch with descendants of Alexander Cobham Martyr (1808-1902), who had to change his surname to Cobham on inheriting Shinfield in Berkshire.
John Watson, who didn't have the benefit of the internet, did very well, but he got a few things wrong. One of them was that my great great grandmother, Ellen Emma Cobham Watson, was in fact born on the Manning River, New South Wales in 1841 (certificate) and her mother, Ann Percival Watson, died there in 1843 (newspaper announcement). This changes the whole dynamic of the family and a few of us are trying to understand how George Watson seems to have started a second family with Ann's sister, Mary, before Ann had died. He married Mary Martyr in Sydney in 1844 (certificate), but their eldest daughter is shown as having been born on the 1st January 1840 (entry in family bible). The 1st January 1840 is perhaps a convenient round figure and I wonder whether an innocent explanation could be that an error in the year of birth was made many years later without realising the implications. All very intriguing!
In something of a desultory way, I am trying to update John Watson's history for my family should they show a flicker of interest. I too am not sure how private messaging works, but it might be the way forward. Some of the pieces I have written in the past have gone online in a general way and I have been a little disappointed to find them then absorbed into other people's histories verbatim, and with assumptions made about facts that I have been careful to qualify.
Good luck with your research and best wishes.
Jonson1
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Hi Jonson1,
On the far left top corner of each post is a tiny little symbol like a little page with a corner turned down. It is next to another symbol to see the person's profile. If you put the pointer on that little page symbol it says "Message", so I have tried to send you a private message. At the top tabs there is one for "My Messages". Click there to see your Inbox. I've just worked this out for myself by exploring the symbols and various tabs in this website. I hope you see my message.
kind regards,
Deanna
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Hi Deanna and QueenCorgi
Posting this via Rootschat as I think it of interest to all descendants of Thomas Creswick Watson and his son, George. I was killing time yesterday by googling names and happened to put in Thomas Creswick Watson as I have done many times before. What came up this time however was this from the Wrexham and Denbigh Advertiser of Sat 15th April 1854:-
"On the 9th April 1854 at King Street, Wrexham, Rebecca Watson aged 89 years, widow of Thomas Creswick Watson, Captain and Adjutant in the Denbighshire Yeomanry Cavalry."
I couldn't find Rebecca in the 1841 census, but did find her in the 1851 census, again at Wrexham. She is shown as a visitor in the house of Eliza Graham and her age is given as 83 (so how old was she?). Her occupation is as a proprietor of houses and she was born at Sheffield. Also staying at the house is her granddaughter, (Mary) Cecilia Watson. She we know was the daughter of George Watson and her age and birthplace of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as given in the census, are correct.
Over the years we have all accepted John Watson's version of events in his history of the Watson family, where he states that Rebecca Watson died in 1838 and that George Watson came into the small inheritance from his father at that time. This was a spur to him taking his family to Australia the following year in 1839, as he then had the funds to set up a new life there. I have always thought it odd that he obviously had very little cash to invest in his new property on the Manning River and virtually went bankrupt within a short time.
Now that we have a birthplace for Rebecca, and a slightly confused birthdate, it would be good to know when and where Thomas Creswick Watson and she married, and what her maiden name was. I am not happy about her being Rebecca Hanson from Whaplode, Lincolnshire and wonder whether anyone has firmer evidence. I have looked carefully at Find My Past records and can't find an entry that convinces me. I have also done a quick search for a will, but found nothing yet. If she was a property owner, she might have had one.
It seems that when Thomas Creswick Watson retired from the 3rd Light Dragoons, he took up a position with a militia unit. Their records tend to be sparse, but I might research it further.
Best wishes
Johnson1
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Hi Jonson1,
Interesting discoveries.
Thanks for that information.
Regards,
Deanna
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Hi QueenCorgi and DeannaB, and all descendants of Thomas Creswick Watson out there!
Further to my previous post, I have been using Find My Past again using their cleverer search facilities. Another marriage has come up which I think is the correct one for Thomas Creswick Watson, being St Peter and St Paul Church, Sheffield, although for some obscure reason the entry in the register is for Thomas Watson Creswick.:-
"3rd November 1789. Thomas Watson Creswick of this parish, bachelor, and Rebekah Ellison of this parish, spinster, by banns. Signed by Thomas Watson Creswick and the mark of Rebekah Ellison. Witnesses John Ellison (spelt wrong, but obviously her father) and John Hall"
Thomas Creswick Watson was baptised in this church 20th June 1770 and his father, Paul a widower, married Judith Wigglesworth (not Wrigglesworth) widow here on 30th November 1787, when John Hall was again one of the witnesses. There are two baptism entries in the same church for Thomas and Rebecca's children (Rebecca seems to have been spelt in all different ways, but it is spelt this way at her death in 1854) and I have not been able to find any more children:-
"9th May 1790. Susannah, daughter of Thomas Watson, plater, and Rebecca Watson"
"19th April 1795. George, son of Thomas Creswick Watson, plater, and Rebekah Watson (BTs)"
I went back a little further and found the following baptism entry in the St Peter and St Paul registers which seems to tie in with Rebecca's age and birthplace at her death and in the 1851 census:-
"26th June 1767. Rebecah, daughter of John Ellison, cutler (Rebecca in BTs)"
Although I don't understand why the entry should be in the name of Thomas Watson Creswick, I feel that this is the correct marriage that has eluded us over the years. It is the right church and the right date. The story could be that young Thomas gets into trouble with slightly older Rebecca and marries her, with father there to see the deed done! Susanna(h) is baptised six months later.
I myself have not found the Birmingham links that John Watson obviously found in the 1970s (did the information come from family?) and a Rebecca Hanson has been mentioned a few times as the wife of Thomas. Has anyone any thoughts on this, as I am prepared to be put right?
Best wishes
Jonson1
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Hi. I am actually doing a "house history"
According to A N Palmer, King Street was laid out in 1828, it was the first residential street formally built in Wrexham. Two houses belonged to Captain Watson which were called Wynnstay Place.
In Pigot & Co.'s Directory 1828-29. There is no mention of King Street, but among the names listed is Nobility, Gentry and Clergy - Captain Thomas Watson, New Street.
I found nothing more until this. Wrexham Advertiser 15th April 1854
On the 9th, at King-street, Wrexham, Rebecca Watson, aged 89 years , widow of Thomas. Creswick Watson, Captain and Adjutant in the Denbighshire Yeomanry Cavalry.
Rebecca was 89 when she died (GRO) in her will she names son George and her grandchildren, but nothing about her effects and property.
Rebecca Watson : will, 1854
Watson, Rebecca, Wrexham, Denbigh, Widow
http://hdl.handle.net/10107/329924
If the person who has the portrait reads this, I would be delighted with a copy to add to my story. ;)
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https://goo.gl/maps/LpwMferKxqMNnTD3A
The building right on the corner is 1 King Street, a Harriet Sadler had a ladies school there for many years.
Pigot & Co.'s Directory of 1844, King Street, at Wynnstay Place is Harriet Sadler who has a boarding school.
it`s not a country house, but close to the centre of Wrexham, but at the "posher" area of the town.
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Hi Wilcoxon
Thanks! Great to read your two posts re my researches into the Watson family. I am answering this in somewhat of a hurry as I am away tomorrow. I therefore am answering from memory, rather than from my paperwork.
I am updating a family history written by an Australian cousin in the 1970s and find that, although he had found the Wrexham connection, he got one or two things slightly wrong. Your information, especially the link to Rebecca Watson's Will, is a great help. I have recently finished the text of my updated history, and will make some slight alterations as the Will makes certain things clearer. I could never understand why I, as the gt gt grandson of Ellen Watson, should end up with Thomas Creswick Watson's portrait (or what we have always understood to be his portrait!) and his 1811 Commission promoting him to Captain. Ellen was the youngest daughter of George Watson's first family. The Will makes clear that Rebecca leaves her estate to the three surviving daughters of George Watson, Eliza being the eldest. Clara was married and Eliza, with young Ellen, came back to England from Australia in the early 1850s (but after 1851 I think as I cannot find either of them in the census) so that Ellen could be educated in England. They lived in Blackheath, Kent, and I wondered how they supported themselves, as George Watson would not have had spare funds. Reading the Will makes me think that Rebecca was supporting them before she died, and certainly her estate would have helped after her death in 1854. Eliza died in 1858 of TB (occupation on death certificate is annuitant) and Ellen went back to Australia that year, meeting her future husband on the ship out.
I am certainly happy to let you have a copy of the portrait and you might be interested in some of the Watson history. There is quite a lot on Thomas Creswick Watson. I feel that he and Rebecca moved to Wrexham in order for him to take up his post with the Denbighshire Yeomanry Cavalry, as they didn't have any connection to that area before. Is there a way to exchange emails? I think there is, but I don't spend a lot of time on Rootschat.
It is good to know where Wynnstay Place is. I took a group to Wrexham a couple of years ago in order to visit the church, and I would have liked to have visited the place. Hopefully will visit again.
Best wishes
Jonson1
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Have sent a Personal message.