Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Watson, Robert (fl.1581-1605)

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742688Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 60 — Watson, Robert (fl.1581-1605)1899Edward Irving Carlyle

WATSON, ROBERT (fl. 1581–1605), almanac-maker, matriculated as a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 22 Nov. 1581, and proceeded B.A. from Clare Hall in 1584–5. He had returned to Queens' College by 1589, in which year he was licensed by the university to practise physic. He pursued his profession at Braintree in Essex, and combined the study of medicine with that of astrology. He published for several years an almanac containing a forecast for the year. The earliest extant appeared in 1595, entitled ‘Watsonn. 1595. A new Almanacke and Prognostication for … 1595. … By Robert Watson. Imprinted at London by Richarde Watkins and James Robertes,’ 8vo. There is a copy at Lambeth; copies in the British Museum are dated respectively 1598 and 1605, the latter copy being among the Bagford papers.

[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. iii. 310; Gray's Index to Hazlitt's Collections.]

E. I. C.