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Claudius Watts Obituary and Remembrance
Harbor Grace Standard, 1908-12-23, Page 4
DEATH OF A WELL-KOWN CITIZEN.
Claudius Waits, Esq., Passes Away at the Advanced Age of 97 Years.
Claudius Watts was born in Carbonear on the 9thday of April, 1811, and was the fourth son of Henry Corbin Watts. When eight years of age, he was sent by his father, to Brigus to attend the school held there by his uncle, James Nirier Harris. A large number of boys attended this school, the fame of which was known throughout the Bay. Mr. Watts finished his schooling, and a few years later when Mr. Harris gave up his school and commenced a general commercial business in Brigus, went with his uncle as an accountant. Mr. Watts remained with his uncle until that gentleman retired from businessand returned to England [in about1838], a step made imperative by reason of the disastrous fire that destroyed his premises and shipping.The late Samuel Elliott of this town was an employee of Mr. Harris at the time that, the fire occurred, and it was through a mishap on Mr.E.'s part that the conflagration started. It may not be out of place to record the reason of Mr. Harris coming to Newfoundland. He like many other men in the West of England, who had means to invest, placed money in the ventures of commerce in Newfoundland, and so it came about that when Spurrier, who carried on a large business in Burin, and several places in Placentia Bay, became financially embarrassed, Mr. Harris was a heavy loser. In order to ascertain the real condition of affairs Mr. Harris came out, and on his appearance at the office of Spurrier at Oderin, the letter of introduction that he had, commanded the ready attention of the office-staff. He asked to see the firm's ledger, and when this was handed to him, he coolly left the office with the it, for which he demanded £1000 before he would give it up, and subsequently made himself acquainted with the condition of the business.
When Mr. Harris wound up his business, Mr. Watts returned to Carbonear, and entered the employ of Gosse, Pack & Fryer, the senior partner of the firm being Mr. Watts' uncle. Two years after, he was sent by the firm to Bay Roberts to conduct their branch trade at that place. He returned to Carbonear some few years later, and with his father, and brother, Francis Watts, started business in that town and at Red Bay, Labrador. During the time that be was thus engaged, Mr. Watts gained a masterly amount of marine affairs, and his fertile mind stored up information and knowledge of the country, its people, and its trade.
In 1849, Mr. Watts accepted the position of chief accountant with the firm of Ridley & Harrison (afterwards Ridley & Sons), of this town, in which he remained until 1861. In 1863, he was appointed secretary and treasurer of the Harbor Grace Water Co, and in 1869. Secretary and Treasurer of the Gas Company. He was also secretary of the old H. G. Agricultural Society.
Mr. Watts leaves two sons H. J.Watts, of H. M. C, St. John's, and H. C. Watts of this town, and one daughter, Mrs. J. H. Parsons, also of this town. Another son, Theodore, died in San Francisco some ten years, whose widow and four children live with Mr. H. C. Watts, here. A daughter Zela was married to William Tait, and went to New Zealand, where she died a few years ago. Her children and grand children live there; it was but a few days before Mr Watts' death that he received a letter from one of his grandchildren letting him know of the success that his great-grandson, Harry Norris, had won in music, a success that entitled him to go to London, to the Royal Academy of Music free. He took the greatest honors ever attained in the Australian Colonies in music. He was then 18 years old.
Mr. Watts' father was Henry Corbin Watts, who was born in Ringwood, Hampshire. England, and when a young man in 1797, came out to Carbonear to his uncles, George and James Kemp, and a few years later became their agent. His paternal grandmother had two brothers, one of whom was John Gosse, of the firm of Gosse, Pack & Fryer of Carbonear, and Poole, England. The other brother, Thomas Gosse, was a celebrated miniature painter. The last-named had two sons,William and Philip H. Mr. C. Watts' father and these were thus first cousins. William, the elder, came to Carbonear as clerk to Gosse, Pack & Fryer, about the year 1827. William was noted as a beautiful writer. Philip Henry Gosse came also to Carbonear three years later, as a clerk to Slade, Bison & Co. He possessed a powerful mind and was deeply-learned, but business routine work did not command his whole time and ability. As anamusement he devoted part of his time to the pursuit of natural history, and subsequently became the well-known naturalist.
Mr. C Watts' grandmother, (who before her marriage was Ann Lyne Gosse and a sister of Mrs. George Kemp), came out to Carbonear in 1810, to live with her son, Henry Corbin Watts. The passage was made in one of Kemp's vessels, the celebrated General Wolfe, the captain of whom was the noted mariner Tullock. The General Wolfe had the name of being the smartest sail ei then afloat and her master was no less known as a navigator and commander. She carried 8 brass guns. Kemp's fleet of fifteen vessels, the name of some of which were - St. Vincent. Trafalgar, Nile-Intrepid, Regis, Egerton Castle, Ringwood, Dorset, Carbonear, Gibraltar, Weymouth, Winborne, Lymington, &c. This fleet was convoyed, by five ships of war - the Bellerophen (the second lieutenant of which was Mrs. Watts' nephew), the Harlequin, Golliaquin, Clinker, and Hero.
One of Mrs. Watts' nieces, Sarah Gosse (called after her aunt Sarah Kemp), was married to an Episcopal minister named Strong, who was chaplain of one of the regiments stationed in St. John's. They returned to England, later going to Canada with the same regiment. Their son, now Sir Henry Strong, is ex-Lord Chief Justice of Canada. Another niece of Mrs. Watts, Betsy Gosse, was married to a Spanish merchant, of Bilboa, named Ancell. George Kemp, the eldest of the brothers, was a member for his native county, Dorset, before he came to Newfoundland.
Edmund Gosse, son of Philip Henry Gosse is now librarian of the British House of Commons.
The vessel General Wolfe. Capt Tullock, played an important part in the history of Carbonear in November, 1812 - the time of the American war. Provisions were scarce in Carbonear and in other places in the Bay. Mr. H. C. Watts decided to make a trip to Quebec for a supply of necessaries, and the General Wolfe and her venture some master were requisitioned for the work. She left Carbonear during the first week of November, went to Quebec, secured full cargo of provisions, and returned to Carbonear before the month ended. Capt. Tullock and Mr. Watts decided to come by way of the Straits of Belle Isle, that route being free of American frigates preying upon British shipping. She was chased by one of these ships, but her fast sailing soon had the American craft at a safe disdance. The General Wolfe's cargo saved many families from dire want that winter.
Mr. Claudius Watts was married to Mary French, of Bay Roberts, in 1839, the ceremony being performed in that place by the Rev. Oswell Howell. Mrs. Watts died in 1854. A brother of the deceased, Francis, went to to P. K. Island in 1850, and settled there. He died some six years ago and left a large number of descendants.
Mr. Watts was a man of exceptionally strong physique, with a very fine constitution inherited doubtless from his forefathers, sustained by an active outdoor life in his earlier years, and maintained by life-long habits of temperance in its widest sense - a fitting companion and helpmate of his energetic alert spirit.The malady in his leg from which he suffered for over 40 years, his determination did not allow to restrict his activities as much as one would naturally expect nor did it drain his resources of strength as it would have done, in less vigorous constitutions. At the close of his nearly one hundred years of life's struggle, there was none of that wasting of tissue attendant on old age, his body was as well-nourished as that of a man of middle age, and but for the accident, such as the aged are apt to encounter, be might have reached years beyond the century mark, his mental faculties being even less impaired than his physical.
He was of medium height, with a tough, well-knit frame, avoiding the extremes of undue thinness and obesity. He had a fine head, an expansive forehead, bright flashing eye, and a mobile mouth proclaimed him a man of intellect beyond the ordinary, with considerable faculty of expression.
His reasoning powers were of a high order, as were also bis powers of observation.
His mind was always on the alert to learn all that he thought was worth learning in manifold fields of knowledge. There was scarcely any topic, technical, commercial, historical, social or religions, one might introduce, but he could remark on it in a striking and often original manner. He was a keen observer, and a widely-read man; But it was his memory, almost marvelous in retentiveness, that enabled him to gather up such a store of knowledge that he was a veritable cyclopedia of information. The minuteness with which he would narrate occurrences he had witnessed or obtained from other sources was truly astonishing. The writer remembers him on one occasion not very long ago telling how fifty years before he had one evening on the eve of attending a notable meeting, stood on a doorstep on Water St., when the wind was blowing from a certain quarter, adding besides other particulars that one would think long-forgotten. This is only a sample of the accuracy and minuteness of his calling to mind what he had learned or had gone through. He had likewise, a good sense of humor, and picturesque mode of expression. Like the ancient mariner in that fine poem of Coleridge's, he would fix his companion with his glittering eye, and his graphic description of men and events, so that he would find it hard to break himself away from the scenes, often of the long ago, brought before his mental vision.
Mr. Watts was a man, likewise of great straightforwardness and independent spirit, not only in ordinary business matters in which he was very anxious to give as well as to obtain what was justly due, but in all the other concerns of life, social and political. He had also a reverent spirit and a tongue that scorned to tell a lie or to respect an indelicate tale.
Take him all in all, our old friend, we shall never see his like again. Rest thee, thy body 'neath the sod, Thy spirit with thy Father - God. We mourn thee here, thy friends below.
And grieving on life's voyage go.
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