MEMOIRS

OF

THE REV. RICHARD WATSON.

CHAPTER I.

Mr. Watson's Parentage-Birth-Delicate Health-Early Education-Religious Training-Death of a Sister-Fraternal Conduct-Removal to LincolnEducation in that City-Proposal that he should enter the Army-Love of Reading-Apprenticed to a Joiner-Personal Appearance-Moral CharacterConversion-Fervent Piety-Singular Accidents.

FEW subjects of inquiry excite deeper interest than the personal history of men who have been distinguished by learning, genius, or any peculiarities of character and conduct. The Church and the world, therefore, have each their favourite biographical works, in which their respective heroes are exhibited; and to these they are accustomed to pay a more than ordinary attention. To meet the public demand for some authentic record of one of the most eminent men of modern times, the following narrative has been prepared. It suggests many important lessons of practical instruction; and presents, in a very striking view, the power and excellence of true religion, as giving strength and elevation to the human intellect, sanctifying a life of affliction, inspiring universal charity, and affording consolation and hope in the prospect of death and eternity.

The Rev. Richard Watson was the son of Thomas and Ann Watson, and was born at Barton-upon-Humber, in Lincolnshire. His father, who was a native of Ledenham, near Lincoln, was the son of a respectable farmer; and as the family was somewhat large, and could not be all conveniently employed in agriculture, he was brought up to the business of a saddler. The earlier years of his life were spent in Nottingham; where it is probable he served his apprenticeship. In this town he was connected with the Methodists. He subsequently removed to Bawtry, and from thence to Barton.

Mrs. Watson, the mother of Richard, is still living, (1834,) and resides in Nottingham. She was born in London; but removed in early life with her parents to Finningley, near Bawtry, where she became acquainted with Mr. Watson, and was married to him in the parish church of that village. Though far advanced in years, she is in full possession of her faculties; and in her features greatly resembles her She presented her husband with eighteen children, of whom Richard was the seventh. They all died in their infancy, except Richard, and three sisters who are still living.

son.

Richard was born February 22d, 1781. His father at that time was connected with the dissenters; yet, being a freeman of the city of Lincoln, and thinking that the parish register might be of advantage to his son in future life, the child was baptized at St. Peter's church, in Barton. During his infancy his health was exceedingly delicate;

his death was almost daily anticipated; he was taken to the church to be baptized on the fifth of March, being then only eleven days old; and his parents, who were passionately fond of him, had scarcely the slightest hope that he would be spared to arrive at manhood. He was 80 extremely weak, that his mother was for a long time compelled to nurse him upon a pillow; his feeble and attenuated frame not being able to bear the slight pressure of its own weight upon her arms.

When he was about three or four years old, so as to be able to walk, he became very lethargic. If his mother suffered him to leave the house for the purpose of play, a messenger generally arrived in a very short time, informing her that her son had reclined his head upon the threshold of some neighbouring house, and was there fast asleep. This drowsiness was only temporary, and was succeeded by unusual playfulness and vivacity. At a proper age he was placed under the tuition of an old lady who kept a school within a few doors of his father's house. The very earnest and vehement manner in which he repeated the letters, when learning the alphabet and beginning to form syllables, greatly interested his governess; who often exclaimed, "Bless thee! Thou wilt be a great man.". The prediction has been amply verified; and the kindness and generosity under the impulse of which the prophetess thus oracularly spoke were honourable to her character; although the attainments of her pupil at that time could not be regarded as any proof of future eminence.

Having acquired the rudiments of instruction under the care and encouragement of his female teacher, Richard was sent to a school which was kept in a room adjoining St. Peter's church, by the curate, whose name was the Rev. Matthew Barnett, the clergyman by whom he had been baptized. He was then about six years of age; and during the first quarter of his admission, his intelligent tutor, seeing the capabilities of the boy, waited upon his parents, and proposed that he should immediately enter upon the study of Latin. With this suggestion they readily complied; although they had not previously contemplated, in the education of their son, any thing more than a bare preparation for some ordinary business. A higher Power, however, designed him for more important employment; and had it not been for that sound classical training which he received in early life, he would have been very inadequately qualified for those momentous services in the Church for which he was intended. The parties concerned in conducting his education, at this period of his life, were unconscious instruments in the hands of a wise and gracious Providence, which was preparing him for extensive and permanent usefulness in the world. He had great aptitude for the acquisition of learning; so that he could freely indulge himself in play, which, considering the peculiar delicacy of his constitution, was necessary to his health, and yet he was always ready to obey the call of his master, when the time arrived for repeating his lesson. His mother often reminded him of the length and difficulty of his classical tasks, and of the consequent necessity of application; and his general reply was, "I can say my lesson." Fearing that he did not pursue his studies with sufficient diligence, she inquired of Mr. Barnett respecting the proficiency of his pupil; who told her that she might lay aside all anxiety on that subject, inasmuch as the improvement of her son was to him perfectly satisfactory.

Richard remained under the efficient tuition of this clergyman about two years, when the family removed from Barton.

During his residence in this town, Mr. Watson, sen., was accustomed, when the tide served, to cross the Humber from Barton to Hull on the Sunday morning, to attend the preaching of the Rev. Mr. Lambert, an eminent dissenting minister in that town; and also that of the Rev. Joseph Milner, the ecclesiastical historian. In Mr. Milner's church he often heard Mr. Stillingfleet, of Hotham, and other evangelical clergymen of celebrity. On these occasions he was frequently accompanied by his son Richard, who thus early in life was trained to an attendance upon the public worship of almighty God, and enjoyed the means of Christian instruction; and that salutary impressions were then made upon his tender mind, he afterward gratefully acknowledged. His father's sentiments, at this period, appear to have been Calvinistic; and as he was anxious that his neighbours should enjoy such a ministry as that which he conscientiously preferred, and to which he attached so much importance, he united with some other persons, like minded with himself, in the erection of a small chapel at Barton, in which a minister belonging to the connection of the late countess of Huntingdon was invited to officiate. He lodged in the house of Mr. Watson during his stay in Barton; but as he did not succeed in raising either a congregation or a church, so as to obtain adequate support, he at length left the place, and the attempt to raise a dissenting interest was abandoned. The sale of the chapel became necessary; and Mr. Watson would not consent to this measure, unless his fellow trustees would dispose of it to the Methodists, that it might still be used as a place of religious worship. To this they agreed; and this humble structure is believed to have been the first Methodist chapel in Barton. By this attempt to introduce a dissenting ministry, Mr. Watson offended many of his customers, who therefore withdrew their patronage from him. His business, in consequence, declined; and he was ultimately induced to leave the town. He was an upright man; and among those who were personally acquainted with him in those times, he had the reputation of possessing considerable powers of memory; while his general intelligence, and especially his knowledge of divinity, raised him considerably above the greater part of his contemporaries of the same rank in society. The discipline which he maintained in his family was strict. His children were trained up in a regular attendance upon religious worship; were restrained from evil company, from Sabbath breaking, and from the use of profane songs; and regularly instructed in the Assembly's Catechism. His parental care and solicitude were not in vain. Though often called to follow his infant offspring to the grave, in one of them, at least, he was favoured with a signal display of the power of Divine grace. He had a daughter who was a very remarkable example of early piety. She was a year or two older than her brother Richard; and they were tenderly attached to each other. They were accustomed to sing hymns together; and when they were left in the dark, she often told him that they need not be afraid; for that good angels, who sing hymns to God continually, would always take care of them. She had strong presentiments of an early death; and frequently told the family that she should soon die, and go to heaven.

Once, when the shoemaker brought her a pair of new shoes, instead of being elated, as is usually the case in children of her age, she told him that he might take them back again; for that she should not live to wear them. Her anticipations of an early death were realized. She died of the small pox, when her brother Richard was about four years old; and he was thus deprived of his favourite companion.

In the meanwhile, his mental improvement kept pace with his age. When he was not more than six years old, he read, with intense interest, sixteen or eighteen volumes of the Universal History, relating to the European nations, which his father purchased for him in one of his visits to Hull. He was exceedingly desirous to obtain the remainder of that voluminous work; but in this he was disappointed. In those times he also practised himself in drawing, in which he took great delight, and manifested more than ordinary taste. When he wanted a fresh supply of brushes, or of colours, he generally made application to his mother, whom he found, as other children have also done in similar cases, somewhat more accessible on such subjects than the father. It was his practice to repeat his Latin grammar to his eldest sister who now survives him; till at length she became nearly as well acquainted with it as he himself was. At one time, being both confined to the house by indisposition, they committed nearly the whole of Fenelon's Telemachus to memory. His sister speaks of his fraternal spirit and conduct in those times, and in his subsequent life, in terms of delight and affection. If any misunderstanding ever took place between them, it was generally terminated by a repetition of two stanzas in Dr. Watts's hymns for children, with which their minds were familiar :

"Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature too.

But children, you should never let
Such angry passions rise;

Your little hands were never made

To tear each other's eyes."

When Richard was about eight years of age, the family removed from Barton to Lincoln, where his father carried on business for several years, in the parish of St. Mary. On their arrival in that city, Richard was sent to a private seminary, kept by a person of the name of Hescott, till his parents should be able to obtain for him admission into the free grammar school. Here his classical studies seem to have been in a great measure suspended; and his attention was directed to the mathematics, and to those branches of education which have a reference to commercial transactions. At this school he does not appear to have been distinguished either by his application or his proficiency. His hand writing was not good; and, indeed, he was never ambitious to excel in this most useful art. He made amends, however, in some degree, by the superiority of his reading. In this he was proposed as an example to the whole school; and it became a common remark among the boys, "Dick Watson will make a capital parson, he is so good a reader." To him, the most important arrangement connected with this period of his life was the course of catechetical instruction