| Description | The papers include a copy of Thomas Watt’s will (Finding no. MS 3219/1/13) which provides for John Watt, his eldest son, to succeed to his properties in Crawfordsdyke, with the provisions that his spouse, Margeret Shearer was to receive her life-rent of the whole of his houses and yard during her lifetime, and all the moveables and furnishings in his dwelling house; his funeral expenses were to be paid; 300 merks Scots were to be paid to James Watt, wright in Greenock, his other son; and 300 merks Scots were to be paid to Jean Watt, his daughter, spouse to John Cochran, schoolmaster of Inverkip.
The agreement between Josiah Henry and Thomas Watt, 1720 (Finding no. MS 3219/1/10) lists twenty skills in navigation to be taught, e.g. ‘To find the leap year and when any of the fixed stars comes on the meridian’; ‘To find how many miles sailing directly east or west in any latitude makes a degree of longitude’. Payment from Josiah Henry was to include a fee and a quire of paper; a new hat when he first became mate, and a pair of gloves when he married.
There are also papers about money owed to and by Thomas Watt and receipts for teaching, rents, etc. |