, a gallant officer and able engineer, was the son of a grazier,
, a gallant officer and able engineer, was the son of a grazier, who lived at Holbeach,
in Lincolnshire, where he was born about 1737, and educated at Gosberton school. Here his genius for the mathematics soon discovered itself, and in 1753 he was a frequent contributor to the “Ladies Diary.
” About this time
his abilities became known to Mr. Whichcot, of HarpsweJJ,
then one of the members of parliament for Lincolnshire,
who introduced him to the royal academy at Woolwich;
and he soon after obtained a commission in the corps of
engineers. Under the celebrated mathematician, Thomas
Simpson, Watson prosecuted his studies at Woolwich, and
continued to write for the “Ladies Diary,
” of which Simpson was at that time the editor. Such was Simpson’s
opinion of Watson’s abilities, that at his decease he left
him his unfinished mathematical papers, with a request
that he would revise them, and make what alterations and
additions he might think necessary; but of this privilege
it seems to be doubted whether he made the best use.
(See Simpson, p. 20.)