William Watts

William WATTS ca.1590-1649

Biographical Note

Born at Tibbenham, Norfolk, son of William Watts. BA Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1611, MA 1614, fellow and chaplain of the College 1616, DD 1639. Vicar of St Peter’s, Cambridge 1615; chaplain to Sir Albertus Morton during his mission to Germany in 1620. Vicar of Barwick, Norfolk 1624, rector of St Alban, Wood Street, London 1625. Prebendary of Wells 1633. He became a chaplain in ordinary to the King in 1639, and accompanied Prince Rupert as his chaplain in the Civil War battles of the early 1640s. He was ejected from his benefice and house in London in 1643, although he seems to have held on to the Barwick living until 1648. He was appointed archdeacon of Wells in 1645, but only in name. He travelled with Rupert’s army to Ireland in 1649, where he died. As well as publishing a translation of St Augustine and an edition of Matthew Paris’s Historia major, Watts issued a series of pamphlets on contemporary Swedish events in 1632-34, The Swedish intelligencer.

Books

When Watts’s goods were seized in 1643 they were valued at £129, of which his books (which were sold) made up £93 11s 9d. An inventory of the books survives in the Committee records at The National Archives.

Characteristic Markings

None of Watts’s books have been identified.

Sources

• Priced list of delinquents' books sold, The National Archives SP 20/7.
• Elligott, Jason Mc.'"Watts, William (c. 1590–1649), Church of England clergyman and author."' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Matthews, A. G., Walker revised, Oxford, 1948.
• Roy, I. The libraries of Edward, 2nd Viscount Conway, and others, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 43 (1968), 35-46.