WATSON, Rienann (Bishop of Llandaff), a learned chemist and able theological writer, w as born in August 1737 at Heversham, near Kendal, where his father had been master of the free gram mar school for 40 years. His ancestors had for many generations farmed the small property of Hardendale near Shap, where his father was born in 1672. He was educated at Heversham under his father's successor, and in 1754 he entered Trinity College as a sizer. In 1757 he obtained a scholarship for his mathematical acquirements, and in 1759, %% hen he took his degree of B.A. he was classed a second wrangler. In October 1760, he was admitted Fallow of Trinity, and in Novem ber, assistant tutor to Mr. Backhouse. At the beginning of 1762 he took his degrees of M.A., and in the October following he was appointed moderator of Trinity College.
His friend and former pupil Mr. Luther, one of the members for Essex, having, in consequent eof his separation from his wife, hastily quitted England, Mr. Watson, without any money, and without any knowledge of the French language, re solved to follow him for the purpose of soothing his agitated mind. He contrived, however, to surmount these obstacles, and in February 1764, after crossing the channel four times, and travelling 1200 miles in the course of a fortnight, he brought back his friend to his country and his family. In the same year he succeeded Dr Hadley, professor of chemistry at Cambridge, though he had never devoted his mind to the subject; but by the energy of his application, he was able, in the course of a year alter his election, to deliver a very excellent and popular course of lectures on the subject, and to compose several learned chemical memoirs for the Philosophical Transactions, as well as a series of essays which were long used as one of the best popular introductions to the science. In October 1767, he succeeded Mr. Bdckhouse as head tutor of Trinity. In 1769 he was elected F.R.S., and on the death of Dr. Rutherford, he was appointed, in October 1771, to the lucrative office of Regius Professor of Divinity. In this new chair, he attracted a numerous audience, and his lectures were characterized by eloquence and independence of judgment. The scriptures he regarded as the
only fountain of divine truth, and the opinion of fathers, churches, and councils, he considered as having no more authority than his own.
In December 1773 he married the eldest daughter of Edward Wilson, Esq. of Dallum Tower in West moreland, a connection which for more than 40 years was the source of uninterrupted satisfaction. Having obtained, through the interest of the Duke of Grafton, a sinecure in Wales, he exchanged it in 1774 for a prebend of Ely, and in January 1780 he became archdeacon of Ely; and in the same year Dr. Keene, Bishop of that see, presented him to the rectory of Northwold in Norfolk. In February 178 i he was presented by his pupil, the Duke of Rutland, to the rectory of Knaptoft in Leicester shire, and through the same influence Lord Shel burne conferred upon him the bishopric of Llandaff in 1782.
Lord Shelburne had expressed to the Duke of Grafton his expectation that Dr. Watson would write in favour of his administration, but the Duke informed him that he had entirely mistaken the character of the man, and that such expectations could never be realized. The preferment of our author of course stopped here. Though his princi ples were decidedly and openly avowed, yet he was too independent to be an instrument in the hands of any ministry, and though he did more than almost any individual to promote the true interests of the church of England, and to stem the torrent of infidelity and anarchy which at one time threat ened to undermine both the altar and the throne, yet no British minister had the virtue to honour and reward such exalted services.
Conscious of the honesty of his zeal, and of the value of the services which he bad done to his country, Bishop Watson retired in disgust from public life, and spent the rest of his life on his estate of Colgarth, which he had purchased, on the batiks of the Windermere. There he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, and in 1789 the Society of Arts gave him their medal for the extent of his plantations. His pupil, Mr. Luther of Ongar, who died in 1786, left him an estate which he sold for X20,000, and which placed him in wealthy circum stances.