Records of Gregory Watt (1777 - 1804)

MS 3219/7

Records of Gregory Watt (1777 - 1804)

1792 - 1804

The records include mainly correspondence and personal papers.
There is a small letter book of outgoing copy press letters. The incoming correspondence includes four bundles of letters from special correspondents, that is James and Ann Watt, James Watt jr., Mr Deriabin and William Creighton; and one bundle from general correspondents, which includes other letters from Creighton.
There are personal papers of various sorts: student essays, translations and poems; printed books; personal papers; personal accounts; papers on mineralogy (1798-1804) including drafts for a paper on Basalt and the final printed version, 1804 and papers on geological observations and travel (passports, letters of introduction, financial papers) in Europe(1801-1802) and Scotland (1803-1804).
There is one drawing, possibly separated from others in the collection [see above].
Among the papers assembled after Gregory’s death are four bundles of letters from Gregory to James and Ann Watt (1793-1803); two bundles to James Watt jr. (1800-1804) a bundle of letters to William Creighton (1803-1804) and correspondence with Francis Jeffrey (1803-1804). A folder of various poems and maps were returned after Gregory’s death by William Withering jr. This section also includes papers and correspondence about an epitaph for Gregory Watt; papers about Gregory’s will etc. and a memoir of Gregory by James Watt jr.

The records of Gregory Watt have ben arranged as follows:
Part 1. Correspondence.
Incoming correspondence.
Outgoing press copy letters.

Part 2. Personal papers.
Student work and compositions.
Printed books.
Personal papers.
Personal accounts.
Papers on mineralogy.
Papers on his travels and geological observations in Europe and Scotland, 1801-1804.

Part 3. Drawings.

Part 4. Papers concerning Gregory Watt’s death, and correspondence from Gregory to various people, returned at a later date.
Letters from Gregory.
Other post-mortem papers.

Part 5.
Miscellaneous.

The bundles have been preserved as listed in the contents of ‘Tin Box 6’ or elsewhere in the 1873 Inventory [MS 3219/8/13].
Each of the above parts is separately listed .The correspondence has all been item listed.
There is a conspectus of new and previous references.
Further information on some of the people and businesses will be found in the 'Guide to Persons & Firms in the Archives of Soho'.
The collection was re-arranged and described by Fiona Tait, Project Archivist, Birmingham City Archives, under the Archives of Soho Project, November 1998-September 2003.

See collection level description.

Material held elsewhere: There are additional papers which were among the objects from the ‘Watt Room’, James Watt’s workshop at Heathfield, presented by Major J.M.Gibson Watt in 1925 to the Science Museum, London. There is an inventory of a ‘Hair Trunk containing books and papers of Gregory Watt’ [Science Museum]. The trunk seems to have contained printed books particularly of Latin and Greek grammar and various manuscript notebooks, on chemistry, mathematics, government, ethics etc. A commonplace book for the years 1790-1795 is also listed there. In addition, watercolours by Gregory Watt from 1793 to 1798 of various castles and views in Scotland, the Lake District and Wales are listed. These are presumably still at the Science Museum, London.

Not Public Record(s)

10 Boxes

Gregory Watt’s papers were for the most part kept together in a box labelled ‘Tin Box 6’ on the 1873 inventory, and then preserved with the ‘James Watt Papers’. Only one item, the probate copy of a 'memorandum by Gregory [MS 3219/7/60] remained in the possession of the Muirhead family.

Gregory Watt was the son of James Watt?s second marriage, to Ann McGregor, and was born in Birmingham in 1777. In 1792, aged 15 years, Gregory was a sent as a student to the university in Glasgow where he stayed with Ann Watt?s sister, Miss McGregor. In the first year, he attended Greek classes. The next year, 1793, he continued with Greek and took also geometry and algebra. His private tutor was Thomas Jackson, who later became Professor of Mathematics at the university of St. Andrews. Jackson was very impressed by Gregory?s command of Latin and his abilities in comprehension and translation, as his letters to James Watt jr. after Gregory?s death show [MS 3219/6/2J].Gregory won numerous prizes each year, for both literary work and mathematics. His translation of the whole of Aeschylus? Choephorae into English, with a critical disertation on the play, was one of the achievements for which he was awarded a prize, and the translation survives here. He attended the lectures of Professor Cleghorn on chemistry at the university. In 1794 he took philosophy (logic), taught by Professor Jardine. In his free time, Gregory pursued an interest in mineralogy and the geology of the area. A friend of Gregory?s at university was the poet Thomas Campbell, who dedicated a volume of his verse to him in 1794. Gregory also wrote poetry and translated various works of the German romantic writers, like Burger. [MS 3219/7/7-16].He joined the partners in Boulton and Watt by 1800, and spent some time in Cornwall where he met Humphry Davy and completed a survey of the geology of Cornwall which he gave to his friend William Withering jr., who returned it with some poems after Gregory?s death. [MS 3219/7/58].Gregory was often ill and suffered particularly from fevers and breathing difficulties. His worsening medical condition led him to give up business in1801, and he travelled abroad to pursue his interest in geology, to Germany, France, Italy and Austria, part of the time in the company of William Maclure, a Scot living in America, also with an interest in geology. Gregory wrote reviews on geological works etc. for a friend, Francis Jeffrey, editor of the Edinburgh Review, and seems to have been planning to publish a geological map of Scotland, for which William Creighton, a Soho employee, undertook various surveys for him. In May 1804, he had published a paper, which was read at the Royal Society, 'Observations on Basalt and on the transition from the vitreous to the stony texture, which occurs in the gradual refrigeration of melted basalt; with some geological remarks.'.He spent his last few months mostly in the care of his parents in Bath, moving to the coast at Sidmouth and then to Exeter, where he died on 16 October 1804. He is buried in Exeter cathedral.

• The Watt and Muirhead papers were microfilmed by Adam Matthew Publications as part of Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History. ‘Muirhead I’ was published in file One: part 2 in 1993; ‘Muirhead II-IV’ in file One: parts 6 and 8, in 1997; and the ‘James Watt Papers ’ in file Three, in 1999.
• All the microfilms are available in Birmingham Archives and Heritage.
• The correspondence between Gregory Watt and William Creighton has been extensively used in ‘The Affective Revolution in 1790s Britain’, Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 34, no. 4 (2001) pp. 491-521, by Lynn Hunt and Margaret Jacob.