William Watts
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William Watts (1722 - 4 August 1764) was chief of the Kasimbazar (or Cossimbazar) factory of the British East India Company. He lived in Bengal for a long time and he was proficient in Bangla, Hindustani and Persian languages.
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[edit] Career
His long interactions with the people of the country enabled him to know about the native customs, habits and manners. In business affairs, he was in close contact with the great merchant princes of the time. This led Robert Clive, known as 'Clive of India' to entrust William Watts with the responsibility of acting as the representative of the company to the Nawab's court at Murshidabad.
Robert Clive engaged him to work out a secret plan for the final overthrow of Siraj Ud Daulah and to install a favourable Nawab on the masnad. Watts thus set up contact with the dissident amirs of the Murshidabad durbar including Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh and Yar Latif Khan. William Watts played a vital role in forging the grand conspiracy against Siraj Ud Daulah which led to his final overthrow at the Battle of Plassey. On 5 June 1757 he personally visited Mir Jafar and obtained his oath of allegiance.
In recognition of his services he was given £114,000 from the Nawab's treasury and made the governor of Fort William on 22 June 1758, in place of Roger Drake who had deserted the fort when it was attacked and captured in June 1756. This had been the location of the Black Hole of Calcutta on June 20, 1756.
Four days later he resigned in favour of Robert Clive to return to England.
He wrote a book Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal which was published in 1764.
On his return to England he built the South Hill Park mansion which lies to the south of Bracknell, Berkshire which is now an Arts Centre.
In June 1764, he was in the process of buying Hanslope Park, Hanslope, Buckinghamshire, but died in that August. The sale was completed for his son Edward, who became Lord of the Manor.
William is buried in the Watt vault in Hanslope church.
[edit] Family
William was born in 1722 in Glasgow, Scotland.[citation needed]
On 24 March 1749 William married Frances Croke (10 April 1728 - 3 February 1812) in Calcutta, the daughter of Edward Croke (1690 - 12 Feb 1769) the Governor of Fort St. David, Bengal and Isabella Beizor. This was Frances' third marriage, having first married at the age of 12 or 13.[1]
He died August 1764, leaving three surviving children:
- Edward Watt (1750 - 9th April 1830) later of Hanslope Park in the County of Bucks;[2] he married Florentina Wynch (1761 - 21 February 1832), daughter of a Governor of Madras, and had a daughter Amelia (1781 - 1862). Edward and Florentina also had two sons, the elder dying aged 22, and the younger William Watts (d. 1847) succeeding to the manor in 1828.[3]
- Amelia (22 Dec 1750 - 20 Jul 1770 bur.) married (as his first wife) British politician Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool on 09 February 1769, and died aged 19 not long after giving birth to the future British Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.
- Sophia (1755 - 8 June 1830) married George Poyntz Ricketts (1749 - 8 April 1800) of Grove Place, Hampshire, Governor of Barbados 1794 - 1800 and had five children: George Poyntz Ricketts the younger, Charles Milner Ricketts, Mordaunt Ricketts, Frederick Ricketts and Isabella, who became Mrs Batson. Sophia Ricketts outlived her husband and her mother.
- William who died an infant
[edit] The 'Begum' Johnson
When William Watts died in 1764, Frances returned to India reportedly to settle his estate, but probably because she had never been comfortable in Britain. Although a wealthy young widow aged 36 it was ten years before she married William Johnson in 1774, a chaplain of the Presidency of Fort William. Frances became known as the 'Begum' Johnson and was the 'grand old dame' of Calcutta (now Kolkata) society for many years.
By 1787, the Johnson marriage was declared at an end, and Frances offered William a settlement and an annuity, with which he returned to England. Frances was 59 years old and never married again.
When she died in Calcutta on 03 February 1812, her funeral was a grand affair that brought many of Calcutta's most prominent men and women, including the governor-general, Earl Minto, together to celebrate the passing of a great life.
Her memorial in St Johns Church, Calcutta [1] states 'The oldest British resident in Bengal, universally beloved, respected and revered'.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Begum Johnson's memorial at St. John's Church, Calcutta. Frances was known as Begum Johnson, by the name of her last husband.
- ^ Ibid. The dates are from elsewhere.
- ^ Six generations of the Watts family, four of them descendants of Edward, were Lords of the Manor of Hanslope, before selling up to the Heskeths between 1931 and 1939. Retrieved 11 November 2007.
