India and director of the India Museum, appointments which he held till the transference to South Kensington of the India Museum at the end of 1879.
In connection with his department he established a photographic branch, in which numerous illustrations were executed depicting Indian life and scenery, and large maps of the country in relief. They were used to illustrate not only his own works, but also those of other eminent writers. In 1874 Watson submitted to government a proposal for the establishment of an Indian museum and library, together with an Indian institute in a central position, where candidates for the civil service might pursue oriental studies. His plea for an Imperial museum for India and the colonies was supported by the Royal Colonial Institute, and it assisted materially in the establishment of the Imperial Institute at South Kensington. He represented India at the international exhibitions held at London in 1862, at Paris in 1867, and at Vienna in 1873, and at the South Kensington annual exhibitions from 1870 to 1874. He retired from the India Office in 1880, and died at Upper Norwood on 29 July 1892. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1889.
Watson was the author of:
- ‘The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India,’ London, 1866, fol.
- ‘Index to the Native and Scientific Names of Indian and other Eastern Economic Plants and Products,’ London, 1868, 8vo.
- ‘International Exhibitions,’ London, 1873, 8vo.
He also drew up catalogues for the Indian departments at several of the international exhibitions, and with John William Kaye edited Meadows Taylor's ‘People of India,’ London, 1868–1872, 6 vols. 4to.
[Journal of the Soc. of Arts, 12 Aug. 1892; Men and Women of the Time, 1891; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.]
WATSON, JOHN SELBY (1804–1884), author and murderer, baptised at Crayford church on 30 Dec. 1804, is stated to have been the son of humble parents in Scotland. He was educated at first by his grandfather, and then at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1838, being one of the gold medallists in classics, and proceeded M.A. in 1844. On 30 March 1854 he was admitted ad eundem at Oxford. He was ordained deacon in 1839 by the bishop of Ely, and priest in 1840 by the bishop of Bath and Wells, and from 1839 to 1841 he served the curacy of Langport in Somerset.
Watson continued his classical studies, and through life devoted his leisure to literary pursuits. From 1844 he held the post of headmaster of the proprietary grammar school at Stockwell, a suburb of London, receiving a fixed salary of 300l. per annum, and a capitation fee when the scholars exceeded a certain number. The school was for some years prosperous, but a serious decline in its popularity induced the governors to remove him from its management at Christmas 1870. He lived from 1865 at 28 St. Martin's Road, Stockwell, and there, in a fit of passion, he killed his wife on 8 Oct. 1871. She was an Irishwoman named Anne Armstrong, to whom he was married at St. Mark's Church, Dublin, in January 1845. Three days after the murder he attempted to commit suicide by taking prussic acid. He was tried for murder and found guilty, but recommended to mercy, and the sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. A volume of psychological studies on his married life was published at Berlin in 1875; one of his remarks at Bow Street was ‘sæpe olim semper debere nocuit debitori,’ and Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) divided the cabinet on the question whether this was good or bad Latin (Fairfield, Baron Bramwell, p. 41). Watson died at Parkhurst prison in the Isle of Wight on 6 July 1884. He was buried in Carisbrooke cemetery.
Watson published annotated editions of the ‘Prometheus Vinctus’ of Æschylus, Sallust's ‘Catiline’ and ‘Jugurtha;’ and his editions of Pope's rendering of the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey,’ with notes, appeared in Bohn's ‘Illustrated Library.’ Several volumes of translations by him, comprehending Sallust, Lucretius, Xenophon, Quinctilian, Cornelius Nepos, Velleius Paterculus, and parts of Cicero, were included in Bohn's ‘Classical Library.’ His version of Xenophon's ‘Anabasis’ and ‘Memorabilia’ of Socrates is No. 78 of Sir John Lubbock's ‘hundred books.’ His original works comprised:
- ‘Geology: a Poem in Seven Books,’ 1844.
- ‘Life of George Fox,’ 1860.
- ‘Life of Richard Porson,’ 1861.
- ‘Sir William Wallace, the Scottish Hero,’ 1861.
- ‘Sons of Strength, Wisdom, and Patience: Samson, Solomon, Job,’ 1861.
- ‘Life of Bishop Warburton,’ 1863. 7. ‘Reasoning Power in Animals,’ 1867.
- ‘Biographies of John Wilkes and William Cobbett,’ 1870.
In October 1871 Watson had ready for the press several works, including a complete history of the popes to the Reformation, which would have filled two octavo volumes. The sole work of his own composition which is known to have brought him any profit was the memoir of Warburton, from which he derived something under 5l.
