HIS INFANCY AND YOUTH. 853 
poor farmer had fought ; that it punished the act in the 
person of the son, by confiscating his property; that the 
unfortunate child, Thomas Watt, was received by some 
distant relations ; that in the entire insulation to which 
his difficult position condemned him, he assiduously 
devoted himself to deep studies; that in more tranquil 
times, he settled at Greenock, where he taught mathe- 
matics and the elements of navigation; that he resided 
at Crawford’s Dyke, of which borough he was magis- 
trate; and that finally he died in 1734, at the age of 
eighty-two. 
Thomas Watt had two sons. The eldest, John, fol- 
lowed his father’s profession at Glasgow. He died at 
the age of fifty (1737), leaving a chart of the Clyde,* 
which was published under the care of his brother James. 
This James, who was the father of the celebrated engi- 
neer, and for a long time treasurer of the municipal 
council of Greenock, as well as magistrate of the town, 
became remarkable in the performance of his duties by 
his ardent zeal, and an enlightened spirit of amelioration. 
He combined, (do not be alarmed; these three syllables, 
that have become a subject of general anathema in 
France, will not injure the memory of James Watt,) he 
combined three species of occupation; he was at once a 
seller of all sorts of nautical instruments f and stores, a 
* This map is reéngraved in the Memorials of Watt, with an adver- 
tisement which ascribes its publication to James Watt, at Glasgow 
College; a MS. note on one copy, said to be in the handwriting of the 
Great Engineer, states that it was published by John Watt in 1760.— 
Translator. t. 
7 It may have been first owing to an examination of these instru- 
ments, that young Watt, in his eighteenth year, in conformity with 
his own desire, was apprenticed to a mathematical instrument-maker 
in London.— Translator. 
