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wards M . P . for the county of Essex , he was indebted for a large portion of that affluence which accompanied the latter period of his life \ while by means of a third—the late Duke of Rutland , he was at length enabled to attain a mitre .
At the period alluded to , modern chemistry , then in its infant state in Great Britain , appears to have been unknown , or at least unattended to in the University of Cambridge . This
may be fairly deduced from the circumstance , that a gentleman elected Public Professor of this science , was notoriously ignorant of the first principles of the art . Luckily , however , the office fell to the lot of Mr . Watson
in 1764 , who determined that it should riot be a sinecure * Immediately after his nomination , he associated Hoffman , supposed to be a good practical chemist , in his labours , and by his means learned the rudiments of the art , in which he was to instruct others . It
is well known in the University that their first attempts were rude , awkward and unsuccessful . During the course of their joint experiments , both they and their workshop are said to have been " blown into the air I" but
luckily escaping with only a few bruises and contusions , they proceeded in their doubtful and dangerous labours , until considerable ' progress had been effected . Immediately on this , the subject of the present memoir
having commenced his public lectures , adopted the nomenclature then in use , but since become obsolete , and exhibited his apparatus and his experiments to a crowded and admiring audience . The discourses of the new
Professor were of a popular nature ; he did not pretend to enter into the depths of science , but contented himself with explaining the more obvious principles , and above all demonstrating the intimate connexion between chemistry and manufactures . His fortune was now assured . In
1771 he was created Doctor of Divinity by royal mandate ; and in the course of the same year was unanimously elected Regius Professor of Divinity to the University of
Cambridge j to which office the rectory of Somersham , in Huntingdonshire , is annexed . On this , he married a lady of respectable connexions , with whom lie had been long acquainted , atjd noon began to have a family around
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him , for whicli he was now enabled to provide . By this time his reputation had extended throughout the whole kingdom , and the Royal Society , anxious to incorporate a man of such talents
among its members , immediately proceeded to his election . Many of his papers , soon after , were published in the Philosophical Transactions ; and those connected with chemistry were at length selected , and engrafted into his Essays .
Meanwhile , his friends and admirers were not inattentive to his clerical interests : for in 1774 he was presented to a prebendal stall in the church of Ely ; and in 17 SO succeeded Dr . Plumptre , as archdeacon of that diocese . In the course of the same
year he obtained the rectory of Northwold , in Norfolk ; while his patron and former pupil , the Duke of Rutland , now presented him to the valuable rectory of Knaptoft , in the county of Leicester , as an earnest of his future intentions .
It may be here fairly and truly stated , without intending any insult to Oxford , that anterior to the French Revolution , the University of Cambridge was uniformly distinguished
by Whig principles , and all those liberal notions both in respect to politics and religion , which were introduced with , or rather confirmed by William III . It was not until the
year 1776 that Dr . Watson had an opportunity of publicly maintaining his own opinions on those interesting subjects . Being then nominated to preach before his own University , on the anniversary of the Restoration , he delivered a discourse , which was soon
after printed , under the title 6 f " The Principles of the Revolution Vindicated , " which attracted a considerable share of notice and popularity . Another of the same nature , and professing the same tenets , on the anniversary of his present Majesty ' s accession to the
throne , produced a controversy ; but like all similar contentions , the disputants were soon lost in their own smoke j and we now only recollect " An Heroic Epistle to Dr . Watson ; the author of which , supposed to be the same with that " to Sir William
Chambers , " remains still unknown . Having thus - vindicated the principles of general liberty , and justified the revolution of 1688 . Dr . Watson
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322 Memoir of the late Right Rev . Dr . Richard Watson .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1817, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2465/page/2/
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