John Watson

Partner in David Lyon & Co. (q.v., under its later form of 'Hawthorn and Shedden') and executor of the will of David Lyon senior, which identifies him as David Lyon senior's partner. He appears to have been the same man as the executor of the will of Alexander Hawthorn (q.v.) made in 1814, which showed him as late of Falmouth and then of Mincing Lane.

1. In 1841 John Watson aged 65 independent was living at Wick Lodge Hove with wife Melville aged 50, both born Scotland. In 1851 Melville aged 62 widow, annuitant was still living at Wick Lodge with sons John annuitant and William B., West India merchant, and daughter Arentina.  By 1861 Melville, fundholder, was at 34 Brunswick Street Hove aged 72 with Arentina aged 35. Melville died at 34 Brunswick Street 07/11/1865, effects under £3000.

2. Will of John Watson merchant of Hove and formerly of Lime Street Square proved 14/12/1844. Under the will (of which the trustees and executors were his wife Melville, David Lyon, Robert Hawthorn and his son William Bryce Watson) he left £5000 each to his five daughters Jane, Melville, Elizabeth, Martina and Barbara, and directed that since Jane and Melville owned £1000 in East India Co. stock purchased partly from legacies under the will of David Lyon and partly from his own funds, his trustees should buy £1000 of the stock each for his remaining three daughters. He left the Bellfield estate in Jamaica to his son William Bryce Watson, and left his residual estate for his wife for her life from which she was to provide their 'helpless' 'invalid son' John.

3. William Bryce Watson of 5 Lime Street Square, the son of John (merchant) and Melville Watson of Upper Bedford Place (born 20/03/1821, baptised 04/04/1821 at St George Bloomsbury) was an executor of David Lyon junior (q.v.).  When William Bryce Watson late of 5 Lime Street Square died 26/12/1878 on the Arcadia estate in Jamaica, one of the executors who proved the will on 21/02/1879 was William Hawthorn of 5 Lime Street Square (effects under £25,000).

The linkage to the John Watson who was a partner in David Lyon & Co is supported by the fact that when John Watson signed for compensation at the National Debt Office his signature was witnessed ('ktm' - 'known to me' ) by David Lyon [junior].

1. 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses online; possibly the John Watson buried at St Giles Camberwell 'of Kent Road' aged 78 18/12/1844, Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online]; children from Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online], baptised betwen 1817 and 1821 at St George Bloomsbury and between 1822 and 1827 at St Giles Camberwell; National Probate Calendar 1866.

2. PROB 11/2009/311.

3. Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online]; London Gazette, Issue 23877, 19/07/1872, p. 3280; National Probate Calendar 1879.