WATTS, ROBERT (1820–1895), Irish presbyterian divine, youngest of fourteen children of a presbyterian farmer, was born at Moneylane, near Castlewellan, co. Down, on 10 July 1820. He was educated at the parish school of Kilmegan, co. Down, and at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast. In 1848 he went to America, graduated (1849) at Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, and studied theology at Princeton, New Jersey, under Charles Hodge, D.D. (1797–1878). He organised (1852) a presbyterian mission at Philadelphia, gathered a congregation in Franklin House Hall, was ordained its pastor in 1853, and obtained the erection (1856) of Westminster Church for its use. He got into controversy on Arminianism with Albert Barnes (1798–1870), a Philadelphia presbyterian of liberal views. On a visit to Ireland he accepted a call to Lower Gloucester Street congregation, Dublin, and was installed there in August 1863.
On the death (1866) of John Edgar [q. v.], Watts was elected to the chair of systematic theology in the Assembly's College, Belfast. He was a keen theologian, of very conservative views, opposed to the tendency of much modern criticism, and especially to the influence of German exegesis. He studied current speculations with some care, in a spirit of uncompromising antagonism. His writings were acceptable to the older minds in his denomination, and were in some measure successful in arresting tendencies which he combated with confident vivacity. In matters where he considered that no theological interest was involved he was not so conservative; he advocated the use of instrumental music in public worship, though this was against the general sentiment of Irish presbyterians. His health suffered from over work, and after the close of the college session, April 1895, he completely broke down. He died at College Park, Belfast, on 26 July 1895, and was buried on 29 July in the city cemetery. He married (1853) Margaret, daughter of William Newell of Summerhill, Downpatrick, who survived him with a son and two daughters. His eldest son, Robert Watts, presbyterian minister of Kilmacreenan, co. Donegal, died on 4 Dec. 1889.
Among his numerous publications may be named: 1. ‘The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment Vindicated,’ Belfast, 1873, 8vo. 2. ‘Reply to Professor Tyndal's Address before the British Association,’ Belfast, 1874, 8vo. 3. ‘An Examination of Herbert Spencer's Biological Hypothesis,’ Belfast, 1875, 8vo. 4. ‘The New Apologetic,’ Edinburgh, 1879, 8vo. 5. ‘The Newer Criticism. … Reply to … W. Robertson Smith,’ Edinburgh, 1881, 8vo. 6. ‘The Rule of Faith and the Doctrine of Inspiration,’ 1885, 8vo. He contributed many articles to presbyterian and other periodicals.
[Northern Whig, 27 July 1895; Belfast Newsletter, 27 July 1895; Irwin's Presbyterianism in Dublin, 1890, p. 233; Latimer's Hist. of Irish Presbyterians (1893), p. 227; Schaff and Jackson's Encyclopædia of Living Divines, 1894, p. 231.]
WATTS, THOMAS (1811–1869), keeper of printed books at the British Museum, was born in London, in the parish of St. Luke's, Old Street, in 1811. His father, originally from Northamptonshire, was the proprietor of the ‘Peerless Pool’ baths in the City Road, the profits from which placed the family in comfortable circumstances. Watts received his education at Linnington's academy, near Finsbury Square, where he soon learned whatever was taught, and distinguished himself in particular by his facility in composing essays and verses. He for some time followed no profession, but devoted himself to literary studies, in which he made remarkable progress, favoured by a prodigiously retentive memory and a faculty for acquiring difficult languages, which enabled him to master all the Celtic and Slavonic tongues, as well as Hungarian, and to make some progress with Chinese. He was particularly interested in Dutch literature. He occasionally contributed to periodicals, and in 1836 wrote an article on the British Museum in the ‘Mechanics' Magazine’ which in some degree anticipated Panizzi's subsequent feat of erecting the great reading-room within the interior quadrangle, though Watts hardly seems to speak of the step as one that was then practicable. His engagement to catalogue a small parcel of Russian desiderata, purchased at his recommendation, introduced him to the museum. At Panizzi's invitation he became a temporary assistant in 1838, and was employed in effecting the removal of the books from the old rooms in Montague House to the new library, a task performed with extraordinary expedition and unexpected facility. In the autumn of the same year he was placed upon the permanent staff. His duties for the next twenty years embraced two most important departments: he was the principal agent in the selection of current foreign literature for the museum, giving at the same time much attention to the acquisition of desiderata; and he arranged all newly acquired books on the shelves according to a system of classification introduced by himself, though agreeing to a great extent with Brunet's. These books
