Notes for: James Watson

James Watson came in 1810 from Pennsylvania to Watson's Corners, ten miles west of St. Thomas, in Elgin County, Ontario, Canada. He returned to Pennsylvania and then went back to settle in Watson's Corners in 1812 (from "Early Settlers of Elgin County, 1896).

Here is a message about the Watson family:

From: Joan Best (joanbest1@earthlink.net)
Sent: Wed, July 31, 2002
Subject: Re: Anything New?

Dave,
Recently I have been working with Jim Thomas, a descendant of David Watson, James Watson's brother. I got their father's estate papers and learned the names of all his children. James and David went to Southwold, Elgin Co. with the rest of the gang. [James is the one that was married to Mary Bodine.] Their son Hugh married Nancy Best, daughter of James and Amy. That makes them first cousins. They had three sons. Two of the sons ended up in the same area as Michael Best, Nancy's brother (my ancestor) in McHenry Co., Illinois. One studied medicine and then interned with his older cousin, John Ellison Best. John had a practice in nearby Arlington Heights, near Chicago, and Dr. Colin Christopher [CC] Watson set his practice up in Nundra, now part of Crystal Lake, in McHenry Co. He had one son, Hugh Watson, who had four children. I found all four of these children, all died fairly recently. They left children and grandchildren. They all live in Washington and Oregon except one branch that lives in Salt Lake City. [I suspect it was this branch that put some of the info in familysearch.] Jim, who lives in Illinois, took a trip to McHenry and gathered obits, pictures and documents. We are exchanging packages.

At the same time as I got Hugh's estate papers, I got the estate papers for Thomas Girton. It was his brother William Girton who became the guardian of the children. He was called "Squire Billy". I will write you soon with more information. It confirms the 7 children who were still alive when Thomas died. 5 were minors.

Joan