Records of John Watt Jr. (1739 - 1762)

The records consist of books of account; letters and accounts and drawings. Most of the accounts relate to the ship Fortune. They include accounts for the building and fitting out of the ship in 1760 and for cargoes 1760-1762. There is a series of individual receipts which can be followed to the account book and ledger.

The letters are from James Watt of Greenock to his son John Watt, 1759-1762.

A note by James Watt jr. on the architectural drawings, of an unidentified church, attributes them to John Watt jr.

John Watt jr. ('Jockey') was the younger son of James Watt of Greenock and the brother of James Watt. He trained as a book - keeper and started a trading enterprise, becoming a partner in the ship 'Fortune', with his father and others, and shipping goods between Glasgow and Bristol from 1760 - March 1762, when the ship was sold.

In April 1762 John Watt sailed to Virginia, North America. his father wrote that this was to gain more experience of trade. He drowned in October 1762 when his ship was wrecked in the Bahamas. There are some papers and a poem by James Watt of Greenock about the life of his son, at MS 3219/3/120.

After John Watt’s death, James Watt of Greenock dealt with any remaining accounts and annotated his son’s papers concerning the Fortune. James Watt, who was at that time living in Glasgow, helped with some of the outstanding business, the pursuit of debts from Matthew Watson, for example,and settled of a couple of debts as late as 1787.

A few papers from John Watt’s business affairs in Virginia were sent back to his father after John Watt’s death by Robert Cowan.

The papers accompanied the other family papers to Birmingham after the death of James Watt of Greenock. They were inherited by James Watt jr. after Watt’s death in 1819, but they do not appear on either of the inventories dated 1848 and 1873.

The papers of John Watt jr. were donated to Birmingham Reference Library as part of the ‘Muirhead papers’, in 1921 by Lionel B.C.L. Muirhead. The volumes were found in Muirhead Box I; most of the papers were found in Muirhead Box IV.

The ‘James Watt Papers’, purchased in 1994, did not hold any records concerning John Watt jr.

John Watt jr.’s papers have been arranged as:
file 1. Books of Account.
file 2. Letters and Accounts.
file 3. Drawings.

The papers in Part 2 have been arranged in chronological order as found in the two bundles for which wrappers survive. One is titled :
‘Sloop Fortune papers and John Watt jr.’s letters and accounts 1760-1761’, and consisted of six smaller packets which have been preserved. The other is titled: ‘Sloop Fortune papers 1761-1762 and Accounts of John Watt 1759-1762 ’, and consisted of two sub-bundles which have been preserved.

There was a small packet of 9 items wrapped in a letter of 24 December, 1763 which reads: ‘Robert Cowan’s letters and accounts of Brother John’s Effects Dec[ember] 1763 to 1765’. The docket is in the hand of James Watt. This small packet had been included in the papers donated by Lionel Muirhead to the Reference Library, and at some point after that had been placed with the incoming correspondence of James Watt jr. in ‘Muirhead IV: bundle ‘C’. Since there seemed to be no connection with James Watt jr.’s incoming correspondence, it was removed and added to the list of letters and accounts of John Watt jr., as MS 3219/5/8/4.

Generally, the papers have been listed in chronological order.

Further information on some of the people and businesses will be found in the 'Guide to Persons & Firms in the Archives of Soho'

There is a bundle of papers concerning the death of John Watt jr. in MS 3219/3/120, in the records of James Watt of Greenock.