yeovil people
Thomas Bullock Watts
Solicitor and Wine & Brandy Merchant
Thomas Bullock Watts was born in Yeovil in 1787. He was the son of Samuel Watts the Elder and Betty née Bullock. Samuel and Betty were to have five sons; George Bullock (1772-1837), Samuel the younger (1774-1843), Edward Bullock (1785-1849), Joseph (1786-1828, Calcutta, India), Thomas Bullock (b1787) and four daughters; Winifred (b 1780), Mary (who married James Glyde), Grace (married James Cayme the Younger in January 1806) and Hannah (who remained unmarried) whose dates are unknown.
Thomas Bullock Watts, like his brothers Samuel the younger and Joseph, became a solicitor. Thomas was also a wine merchant and a partnership was formed and noted in the London Gazette that the partnership traded under the name Cayme Watts & Co. Those signing off on a new name were Thomas, his brother Edward, his brother-in-law James Cayme the younger and his brother John Cayme. However Cayme, Watts & Co was dissolved on 27 July 1813. At this juncture Edward Watts wanted out (he had just married and had even left the military volunteers).
In 1815 there was an interesting bankruptcy reported for a certain carpenter named John Nossiter whose creditors included maltsters from as far away as Bristol and the Yeovil brandy merchants, Bullock, Watts & Cayme the Younger. Indeed Thomas Bullock Watts and James Cayme were themselves declared bankrupt in October 1822. Nevertheless, it would seem that the venture was continued by the firm of Thomas Bullock Watts & Co which was listed in Pigot's Directory of 1824 as a 'Wine & Spirits Dealer' of Wine Street, although Thomas was again declared bankrupt in December 1824.
The Nossiter bankruptcy of 1815 has as one of his creditors Messrs Watts Marsh & Bullock & Co. Later in 1815 it was announced that this banking partnership was dissolved by mutual consent under the signatures of Thomas Bullock Watts, Samuel Watts the Younger, Thomas Marsh and James Glyde.
Thomas Watts' law practice was in Wine Street and Pigot's Directory of 1824 gave him two entries; as an attorney and as an agent for the Suffolk Fire Insurance Company.
In the summer of 1841, at St Swithin's Walcot, Bath, 54-year old Thomas married 28-year old Maria Mounty of Bath. In the 1851 census they were listed living at St Edmund Street, St Pancras, Middlesex. Thomas gave his occupation as a solicitor.
It is not known when Thomas died, but Maria died in London in 1870, aged 57.
Thomas Bullock Watts' articles of clerkship
In the King's Bench
Joseph Watts of Yeovil in the County of Somerset Gentleman maketh oath and saith that he was present and did see Samuel Watts the Younger of Yeovil aforesaid Gentleman one of the Attornies of His Majesty's Court of King's Bench at Westminster Samuel Watts the Elder of the same place Gent. And Thomas Bullock Watts of the same place his Son severally sign and seal and as their several acts and deeds in form of law deliver contain Articles of Clerkship inducted and bearing date the sixth day of this Instant October and made between the said Samuel Watts the Younger of the one part and the said Samuel Watts the Elder and Thomas Bullock Watts of the other part whereby it was agreed that the said Thomas Bullock Watts should serve the said Samuel Watts the Younger as his Clerk in the practice or profession of an Attorney and Solicitor for the Term of five years to be accounted from the day of the date of the said Articles And this Deponent further saith that the names "Saml Watts Jnr Saml Watts Snr and TB Watts" set in or subscribed opposite to the several seals affixed to the said Articles as the parties executing the same are of the several and respective proper hands writing of the said Samuel Watts the Younger Samuel Watts the Elder and Thomas Bullock Watts And that the said article is now executed on the day of the date thereof and that the names of Joseph Watts and Bridget Dyer set as subscribing Witnesses thereto are of the several and respective proper hands writing of him the Deponent and the said Bridget Dyer
Joseph Watts
Sworn at Yeovil aforesaid the ninth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight hundred and four - before me
Edmund Batten
gallery
A notice of sale of a house and land from the 26 November 1822 edition of the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. The sale was brought about by the bankruptcy of Thomas Watts and his brother-in-law James Cayme the Younger.
