William Watts (1722 - 4 August1764) 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.

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.

Family

William was born in 1722 in Glasgow, Scotland.

On 24 March 1749 William married Frances Altham, née Croke (10 April [1725] 1728 - 3 February 1812) in Calcutta, the twice-widowed second daughter of Edward Croke (1690 - 12 Feb 1769) the Governor of Fort St. David, Bengal and Isabella Beizor.

Watt died August 1764, leaving three surviving children (one child William died in infancy):

• Edward Watt (1750 - 9 April 1830) later of Hanslope Park in the County of Bucks; 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.

• Amelia Watt, a lady of great beauty (22 Dec 1750 - 20 Jul 1770 bur.) married (as his first wife) British politician Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool on 9 February 1769, and died aged 19 not long after giving birth to the future British Prime Minister
  • Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828). Lord Liverpool was already a prominent politician when his maternal grandmother died in 1806.

• Sophia Watt, later Mrs Ricketts (1755 - 8 June 1830) married George Poyntz Ricketts (1749 - 8 April 1800) of Grove Place, Hampshire, Governor of Barbados 1794 - 1800, eldest son of Jacob Ricketts of Midgham, Jamaica, by his wife Hannah Poyntz, daughter of Joseph Poyntz, and had five children:
  • George Poyntz Ricketts the younger (1774-1815) who left issue, one son and two daughters,
  • Charles Milner Ricketts (1776-1867) who was Consul-General of Peru 1825. He served in the Bengal Civil Service 1791 to 1823, and was appointed to the Supreme Council in 1817. He was thus probably in Bengal when his maternal grandmother died.. He served as MP for Dartmouth 1820-1822. He had issue including:
    • Poyntz Ricketts(1803 - 1825), his son, served in the Bombay Civil Service.
    • Anna Fane Ricketts, who md 9 July 1846 (as his 2nd wife) Chandos Wren-Hoskyns (1812-1876), of Wroxall Abbey, writer on agriculture, and second son of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns (1776-1862), seventh baronet, of Harewood, Herefordshire; their three children all had tragic fates.
  • Mordaunt Ricketts (1786-1862), who left issue
  • Rev. Frederick Ricketts (d. 1843), Rector of Eckington, who left issue, and
  • Isabella Ricketts, md Stanlake Batson of Horseheath Lodge and Mixbury

.Sophia Ricketts outlived her husband and her mother.

• William (b ca 1757-1758) who died an infant

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 3 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 [245189] states 'The oldest British resident in Bengal, universally beloved, respected and revered'.

Notes

1. Begum Johnson's memorial at St. John's Church, Calcutta. This was Frances' third marriage. She had first married in 1738, in her thirteenth year, one Parry Purpler Templer who died five years later; both their children died young. She then married 2ndly James Altham, who died shortly after their wedding circa 1747. She remained a widow for two years, and then married William Watt, aged about 23/24. Frances would be known to history as Begum Johnson, by the name of her last husband, Rev William Johnson, principal chaplain of Fort William, whom she married in 1774, ten years after the death of her third husband. For a fuller biography, which details her career in 1756, when she and her husband were honorably treated by the Nawab of Bengal. Mrs Watts returned to India around 1769, possibly because she didn't feel comfortable in England, having grown up in warmer India, and ostensibly to settle her late husband's tangled business affairs.
2. Ibid. The dates are from elsewhere.
3. 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.
4. [www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/qr/ricketts1.htm Ricketts family genealogy]. The dates for George Poyntz Ricketts are from elsewhere.
5. Ibid and Ian Poyntz. "Re: Poyntz family" INDIA-L 15 July 2000, retrieved 27 November 2008. The younger daughter Frances Ricketts (1802-1827) married General Sir Abraham Roberts (1784-1873), and had issue, one son and two daughters. By his second wife, he was father of Field Marshal Lord Roberts
6. Ian Poyntz. "Re: Poyntz Ricketts" INDIA-L 27 November 1998, message replying to one of his descendants.
7. Simon Reynolds et al. "SIR WILLIAM BLAKE RICHMOND, R.A. (1842-1921) Amy, Dorothea and Hungerford Wren-Hoskyns". Description of a picture. Retrieved on 27 November 2008.
8. [www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/qr/ricketts1.htm Ricketts family genealogy]
9. Ibid
10. Ibid

External links

• Hanslope and District Historical Society