Watsons of Cranston (Part 2)
Jumping forward a couple of hundred years from the previous post to look at descendants of the Watsons of Cranston
In the previous post we had a look at the Watsons of Cranston, piecing together a family tree based on the royals charters that were granted when they were acquiring lands around Edinburgh. Most of which happened around the late 14th and early 15th Century.
Whilst researching this family and searching the phrase “Watson of Cranston”, I came across a book called Seekers of truth: the Scottish founders of modern public accountancy written by Thomas Alexander Lee and published in 2006.
Nearly three pages of the book are dedicated to James Watson an insurance manager in Edinburgh and one of the founding members of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE). Amongst other titles, he was the Treasurer to the Royal Company of Archers and Manager of Scottish Provident Institution in Saint Andrew’s Square.
James was born in 1811 however, approximately 400 years after the individuals we were looking at in our previous post. So where is the connection?
James’ parents were George Watson (Born 1755) and Helen Cleland (1782-1862) and he had six siblings. His paternal Grandfather was a landed gentlemen by the name of Thomas Watson of Heriot near Crookston in Midlothian and married Christian Allan of Stow, also in Midlothian.
James’ father George, was one of six brothers, and it’s one of the brothers that provided the search hit and connection with the Watsons of Cranston.
George’s younger brother, Thomas Watson of Cranston, was a landed gentlemen and married Agnes Somerville in 1785 to whom he had three daughters, Christian (1787), Agnes (1790), Mary (1792).
Unfortunately this is all I have been able to find on Thomas to date. How did he become Thomas Watson of Cranston? Is he a descendent of the original Watsons of Cranston? Questions without an answer at the moment.
The Royal (ish) Connection
Okay it’s a stretch to say it’s a royal connection, but another little tidbit that I found however, was in relation to James Graham Watson, the son of accountant James Watson and his wife Jessie Austin.
James married Charlotte Maud Boothby, who’s aunt Elizabeth Charlotte Boothby married into the Roche family and whose Great-Granddaughter, Frances Ruth Burke Roche, married Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and together had a daughter by the name of Lady Diana Frances Spencer. The former Princess of Wales and ex-wife of the now King Charles III.
Meaning that James Graham Watson was the husband of 1st cousin 3x removed of Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.
