Robert Spence Watson

He was born in Gateshead, County Durham, the second child of Joseph Watson (1806–1874), an attorney, and his wife Sarah Spence; his parents were Quakers. He was the eldest of five sons, in a family where there were also seven daughters.{{cite book |last1=Boase |first1=Frederic |title=Modern English Biography: Containing Many Thousand Concise Memoirs of Persons who Have Died Since the Year 1850, with an Index of the Most Interesting Matter |date=1921 |publisher=Netherton and Worth, For the author |page=803/4|volume=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4AlIUFSvncC&pg=PA803 |language=en}}{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240326220534/http://www.philanthropynortheast.com/the-philanthropists/watson-robert-spence|date=26 March 2024}} The eldest daughter Lucy married in 1859 Alexander Corder, and their son Percy was Robert's biographer, as well as a partner in the family law firm.{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001632/18590721/050/0004 |work=Newcastle Daily Chronicle |date=21 July 1859|page=4}}{{cite news |title=Mr. Percy Corder: Death of Vice-Chairman of Armstrong College |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001168/19271117/103/0005 |work=Shields Daily News |date=17 November 1927|page=5}}

Watson received his secondary education at Bootham School, York and began studying at University College, London in 1853; he did not complete his degree there, but during that time, and later, he travelled abroad.{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230131/http://www.watsonburton.com/page/robertspencewatson.cfm|date=3 March 2016}} He returned to the North East and was articled to his father.{{cite book |last1=Northern Gossip |title=Northern notabilities, a repr. of 'Northern gossip's' men of merit |date=1897 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rrW2nyfbUQQC&pg=PA37 |language=en}}

In 1860 Watson became a solicitor. He went into practice with his father's firm, under the name J. & R. S. Watson; he remained in legal practice for the rest of his life. He was a mountaineer and a member of the Alpine Club, making his first Alpine climb in 1861 with Henry Tuke Mennell.{{cite book |title=The Alpine Journal |date=1911 |publisher=Alpine Club |page=648 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VyZNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA648 |language=en}} In 1995 a blue commemorative plaque was erected outside his home.[http://www.bpears.org.uk/Misc/Gateshead_Plaques/#WatsonR Gateshead commemoration plaques] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726005053/http://www.bpears.org.uk/Misc/Gateshead_Plaques/ |date=26 July 2013 }}

Watson's father was a liberal radical.{{Cite journal |date=1911 |title=Robert Spence Watson |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/robert-spence-watson/73CF3F80E090F1D7C0BD77C8A71583F7 |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=752–753 |doi=10.1017/S0002930000238323 |issn=0002-9300}} Robert Spence Watson acted as political agent for Joseph Cowen in 1873, ahead of the 1874 general election. Cowen, in parliament from 1874 to 1886, was elected on a Liberal tide in the North of England but identified as a Radical.{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Joan |title=Joseph Cowen and Popular Radicalism on Tyneside, 1829-1900 |date=2007 |publisher=Merlin Press |isbn=978-0-85036-583-2 |pages=103, 108 |language=en}}

Watson was president of the Newcastle Liberal and Radical Association from 1884 to 1897. He was one of the original convenors of the National Liberal Federation (NLF) in 1877. In 1890 he was elected its president, succeeding Sir James Kitson. In seconding the proposal of Watson, Henry Joseph Wilson mentioned that Watson had been nominated sole arbiter of 30 major trade disputes;{{cite book |last1=National Liberal Federation |title=Annual Report Presented at a Meeting of the Council |date=1887 |publisher=Journal Printing Offices |page=48 (1890 section) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAQLAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PA48 |language=en}} the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives the figure of 47 disputes in industry in the north of England to 1894. His work as arbitrator was voluntary. Watson held the presidency until 1902.

At the beginning of 1883, Newcastle Member of Parliament Ashton Wentworth Dilke was in bad health. Watson had prepared the ground with John Morley, and when Dilke resigned his seat, Morley entered the selection process with some assurances that he would not be opposed by Joseph Cowen. The assurances, however, turned out to be poorly founded. {{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Patrick |title=Morley of Blackburn: A Literary and Political Biography of John Morley |date=18 May 2012 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson |isbn=978-1-61147-535-7 |page=110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jTW16jHvGgkC&pg=PA110 |language=en}}

In the divisive period after the Fourth Gladstone ministry ended in 1894, Watson worked closely with T. E. Ellis, Herbert Gladstone and Robert Arundell Hudson, the NLF secretary, to position the NLF as an open forum rather than a thinktank.{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Andrew James Anthony |title=Edwardian Radicalism: 1900-1914 |date=1974 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |isbn=978-0-7100-7866-7 |page=63 |language=en}}{{cite ODNB|id=34035|first=H. C. G.|last=Matthew|title=Hudson, Sir Robert Arundell (1864–1927)}} Watson himself came out clearly at the end of 1897 against the legacy of Palmerston and jingoism, stating at the Birmingham NLF meeting that the Liberal Party "would never wrap themselves in the filthy rag of a spirited foreign policy".{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Edmund |title=The Annual Register |date=1899 |publisher=Rivingtons |page=194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3AtXhesMi5wC&pg=PA194 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=John |title=CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman |date=1974 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=282 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzQmAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}

From the time of his return to Newcastle from London, Watson was involved with rescue work among street children through the local Shoeblack Brigade.{{cite web |title=Robert Spence Watson, 30 Jan 1915. The Spectator Archive |url=https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/30th-january-1915/8/robert-spence-watson |website=The Spectator Archive}} This was a charitable cause particularly promoted by the Newcastle solicitor Edward Glynn.{{cite web |title=Inauguration Of Ts Wellesley |url=https://www.thebluejackets.co.uk/research/action/TSWellesleyInauguration/html |website=www.thebluejackets.co.uk}}{{cite news |title=Obituary Notices |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000085/18711027/012/0003 |work=Newcastle Courant |date=27 October 1871|page=3}} Glynn worked with the Gateshead police officer John Elliott, a former Chartist.{{cite book |last1=Welford |first1=Richard |title=Men of mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed |date=1895 |publisher=W. Scott |location=London |page=311 |url=https://archive.org/details/menofmarktwixtty02welf/page/311/mode/1up}}{{cite book |last1=Todd |first1=Nigel |title=The Militant Democracy: Joseph Cowen and Victorian Radicalism |date=1991 |publisher=Bewick Press |isbn=978-0-9516056-3-9 |page=171 |language=en}} By the 1860s Watson and his wife were involved in managing the Newcastle Industrial and Ragged School.{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Joan |last2=Buswell |first2=R. J. |title=Rutherford's Ladder: The Making of Northumbria University, 1871-1996 |date=2005 |publisher=Northumbria University Press |isbn=978-1-904794-09-7 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtnXibImpM4C&pg=PA14 |language=en}} Watson was a long-terms secretary of the school, for many year jointly with John Thompson Oliver.{{cite news |title=Obituary: Mr. J. T. Oliver |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000569/19180902/120/0005 |work=Newcastle Journal |date=2 September 1918|page=5}}

In 1862 Watson became Secretary to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and held that position for 31 years. His work led to the Society accumulating the largest independent library outside London. At the Society, Watson ran adult education campaigns, featuring the songs of Joe Wilson.{{cite ODNB|id=51480|first=Robert|last=Colls|title=Wilson, Joseph [Joe] (1841–1875)}}

Watson helped to found the Durham College of Science in 1871, later to become Armstrong College and part of Newcastle University. He became its first president in 1910. He was instrumental in the founding of the Newcastle Free Public Library.

File:Robert Spence Watson 001.jpg, 1902]]

Watson was impressed by an 1889 lecture by Sergey Kravchinsky.{{cite ODNB|id=62226|first=David|last=Saunders|title=Kravchinsky, Sergey Mikhailovich [pseud. Stepniak] (1851–1895)}} From 1890 till 1911, he was the president of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. Initially it was sparsely supported, the first recruits apart from the Watsons being the MPs Thomas Burt and William Byles.{{cite news |title=The Siberian Exiles: Interview with Dr. Spence Watson |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004178/18930114/095/0005 |work=Scottish Leader |date=14 January 1893|page=5}} In the society's printed organ Free Russia, Joseph Frederick Green reviewed the pamphlet Nihilism As It Is to which Watson had contributed an introduction.{{cite book |title=Free Russia: The Organ of the English Society of Friends of Russian Freedom |date=1895 |publisher=Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. |pages=15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_t85AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA15 |language=en}} In 1907 Watson with Lord Coleridge defended Vladimir Burtsev, charged in London with incitement to murder.{{cite ODNB|id=62227|first=David|last=Saunders|title=Volkhovsky, Felix Vadimovich (1846–1914)}}

In 1897 Watson published The History of English Rule and Policy in South Africa , and he joined the South Africa Conciliation Committee.{{cite book|last=Howe|first=Anthony|title=Rethinking nineteenth-century liberalism: Richard Cobden bicentenary essays|year=2006|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=0-7546-5572-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eqp4Hae4bmUC|author2=Morgan, Simon |accessdate=21 July 2011|page=239}}

Watson was a member of the Peace Society, and his anti-war views during the Second Anglo-Boer War saw Bensham Grove attacked. After the death in 1903 of Sir Joseph Pease, 1st Baronet, president of the Peace Society, the position was seen as a poisoned chalice, with Leonard Courtney declining it, followed by six others. Watson accepted it.{{cite book |last1=Ceadel |first1=Martin |title=Semi-detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945 |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-924117-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6grf0VG_tVwC&pg=PA170 |language=en}}

• Industrial Schools (1867){{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=Industrial Schools |date=1867 |publisher=Printed at the Ragged and Industrial Schools |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zq_YXqSMdNMC |language=en}}
• A Plan for Making the Society more extensively useful, as an educational institution (1868)
• The Villages around Metz (1870).{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=The Villages around Metz |date=1870 |publisher=J. M. Carr |location=Newcastle-upon-Tyne |url=https://archive.org/details/villagesaroundm00watsgoog |language=English}} Watson travelled to Alsace-Lorraine in 1870 to support Quaker relief work in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, having raised £70,000.{{cite journal |title=Robert Spence Watson |journal=The American Journal of International Law |date=July 1911 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=752–753 |doi=10.1017/S0002930000238323 |jstor=2186381 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2186381}}
• "The Best Method of providing Higher Education in Boroughs", Social Science Association paper published 1871{{cite book |last1=Britain) |first1=National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (Great |title=Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science |date=1871 |publisher=John W. Parker |pages=361–366 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfVJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA361 |language=en}}
• Cædmon, the first English poet (1875){{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=Cædmon, the first English poet |date=1875 |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9GUBAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}
• The history of English rule and policy in South Africa (1879) J. Forster, Newcastle upon Tyne.{{worldcat|name="The history of English rule and policy in South Africa": a lecture delivered in the lecture room, Nelson Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Friday, 30 May 1879|oclc=10990376}}

File:Robert Spence Watson 002.jpg

• A Visit to Wazan: The Sacred City of Morocco (1880).{{cite book |title=A Visit to Wazan: The Sacred City of Morocco |date=1880 |publisher=Macmillan & Co. |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5m9ZxEfF8QC}} Watson in 1879 visited the pilgrimage site Ouazzane in Morocco, with help from John Drummond Hay.{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=A Visit to Wazan: The Sacred City of Morocco |date=1880 |publisher=Macmillan |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5m9ZxEfF8QC&pg=PA25 |language=en}} Its sharif Abd es-Salam had in 1873 married, in Tangier, the British woman Emily Keene, the ceremony being carried out by Drummond Hay.{{cite book |title=Symbolic Power in Cultural Contexts: Uncovering Social Reality |date=1 January 2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-8790-266-7 |page=196 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93kfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 |language=en}} The book was welcomed by The Westminster Review as an alternative to the account by Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs;{{cite book |title=The Westminster Review |date=1881 |publisher=J. Chapman |page=137 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9Q6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA137 |language=en}} but the reviewer in The Athenæum was critical of it as superficial.{{cite book |title=The Athenaeum |date=1881 |publisher=J. Lection |page=160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOBCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA160 |language=en}}
• Irish Land Law Reform (1881){{Who's Who|title=Watson, Rt Hon. Robert Spence|id=U192049}}
• Education in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1884)
• The Relations of Labour to Higher Education (1884)
• Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration and Sliding Scales (1886)
• The Proper Limits of Obedience to the Law (1887){{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=The Proper Limits of Obedience to the Law |date=1887 |publisher=Howe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdhbAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}
• Indian National Congresses (1888)
• The Peaceable Settlement of Labour Disputes (1889)
• Labour, Past, Present and Future (1889)
• The Recent History of Industrial Progress (1891)
• The Duties of Citizenship (1895)
• The History of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1793–1896) (1897){{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=The History of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1793-1896) |date=1897 |publisher=Gregg International Publishers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvEcAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
• "Northumbrian Story and Song" in Lectures Delivered to the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Northumbrian History, Literature, and Art (1898), with Thomas Hodgkin, Richard Oliver Heslop and Richard Welford.{{cite book |last1=Hodgkin |first1=Thomas |last2=Watson |first2=Robert Spence |last3=Heslop |first3=R. Oliver |last4=Welfoed |first4=Richard |title=Northumbrian History, Literature, and Art |publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn=978-5-87389-016-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQMLAwAAQBAJ |language=en}}
• Manuscript biography of his ancestor Robert Foster (1754–1827), published in A Historical Sketch of the Society of Friends in Newcastle and Gateshead (1899), edited by John William Steel{{cite book |last1=Steel |first1=John William |title=A Historical Sketch of the Society of Friends "in Scorn Called Quakers" in Newcastle and Gateshead, 1653-1898 |date=1899 |publisher=Headley Brothers |pages=111–117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJabWgv005sC&pg=PA111 |language=en}}
• Introduction to When I was a Child (1906), autobiography by "An Old Potter" (Charles Shaw); Watson dealt in it with the topic of child labour.{{cite ODNB|id=75290|first=Robert|last=Fyson|title=Shaw, Charles (1832–1906)}}
• The National Liberal Federation: From Its Commencement to the General Election of 1906 (1907){{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=The National Liberal Federation : from its commencement to the general election of 1906 |date=1907 |publisher=T. Fisher Unwin |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/nationalliberal01watsgoog}}
• The Reform of the Land Laws (1906)
• Joseph Skipsey: His Life and Work (1909), T. Fisher Unwin, London. Joseph Skipsey was a coal miner and poet supported over a long period by Watson, who became a family friend.{{cite ODNB|id=36118|first=John|last=Langton|title=Skipsey, Joseph (1832–1903)}}
• Introduction to Nihilism as it is: Being Stepniak's Pamphlets and Felix Volkhovsky's "Claims of the Russian Liberals" (1910), apologetics for the Socialist Revolutionary Party under the name Russian Revolutionary Party{{cite book |title=Nihilism as it is: Being Stepniak's Pamphlets and Felix Volkhovsky's "Claims of the Russian Liberals" |date=1895 |publisher=Fisher Unwin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4MTZ4t4EDPgC |language=en}}

Watson published two books of verse, Waifs and Strays (1864) including poems by his father, and Wayside Gleanings (1880).{{cite book |last1=Corder |first1=Percy |title=The Life of Robert Spence Watson |date=1914 |publisher=Headley Bros. |page=315 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=Waifs and Strays |date=1864 |publisher=private circulation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPTsq6tBeTIC |language=en}}{{cite book|last=Reilly|first=Catherine W.|title=Late Victorian Poetry, 1880–1899|page=501|date=1994|publisher=Mansell |isbn=0720120012}} His song "The Life Brigade" was set to music by Thomas Haswell.{{cite book |last1=Welford |first1=Richard |title=Men of Mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed |date=1895 |page=471 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ephgWwlw4_IC&pg=PA471 |language=en}} Carols "The Children's Christmas" were published set to music by Myles Birket Foster III (1851–1922).{{cite book |editor-last1=Andrews |editor-first1=William |title=North Country Poets : poems and biographies of natives or residents of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire ... : (modern section) |date=1888 |publisher=Simpkin |location=London |page=21 |url=https://archive.org/details/nrthcountrypoets02andriala/page/21/mode/1up}}{{cite book |last1=Corder |first1=Percy |title=The Life of Robert Spence Watson |date=1914 |publisher=Headley Bros. |page=64 note |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0oJAAAAIAAJ |language=en}}

Watson was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of St Andrews in 1881, and an honorary D.C.L. by the University of Durham in 1906. He was created a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1907, by Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman;{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Watson, Robert Spence|volume=3}} as a concession to his Quaker views, he did not wear a ceremonial sword as he was sworn in.

On 9 June 1863 Watson married Elizabeth Richardson at the Friends' meeting house, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. In July they were in Switzerland, and on 6 July with guides they made the first ascent of Balfrin. On 10 July they climbed the Jungfrau, and then experienced a brush discharge on the Aletsch Glacier.{{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=W. Grylls |title=Sound of the Aurora |journal=Nature |date=May 1881 |volume=24 |issue=602 |page=29 |doi=10.1038/024029a0 |bibcode=1881Natur..24...29A |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/024029a0 |language=en |issn=1476-4687}}

A description of their entry into "Newcastle drawing-rooms":

He with his splendid lion's head and golden mane, and she with her hair braided round her head in a coronet, when all the other mothers wore caps.{{cite book |last1=Vernon |first1=Anne |title=Three Generations: The Fortunes of a Yorkshire Family |date=1966 |publisher=Jarrolds |page=140 |language=en}}

The couple had six children:

• Mabel, eldest daughter, married in 1896 Hugh Richardson of Sadberge.{{cite news |title=Marriage of Miss Spence Watson. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000287/18960410/019/0003 |work=Shields Daily Gazette |date=10 April 1896|page=3}}
• Ruth (died 1914), married in 1912 Edmund Innes Gower, schoolmaster.{{cite news |title=Deaths |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000242/19140825/087/0004 |work=Newcastle Journal |date=25 August 1914|page=4}}{{cite news |title=Pretty Quaker Wedding: Marriage of Daughter of Late Dr. Spence Watson |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000087/19121016/127/0005 |work=Northern Echo |date=16 October 1912|page=5}}
• Evelyn, married 1898 Frederick Ernest Weiss.{{Who's Who|title=Weiss, Frederick Ernest|id=U244295}}
• Mary, married 1904 Francis Edward Pollard of Bootham School.{{cite news |title=Marriage of Miss May Spence Watson |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000865/19040806/141/0009 |work=Newcastle Chronicle |date=6 August 1904|page=9}}
• Bertha, married 1902 John Bowes Morrell.{{cite news |title=Marriage of Miss Spence Watson |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002947/19020403/046/0008 |work=Westminster Gazette |date=3 April 1902|page=8}}

Arnold, the only son, died in 1897.{{cite news |title=Funeral of Mr. Arnold Spence Watson |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001634/18971201/098/0005 |work=Newcastle Daily Chronicle |date=1 December 1897|page=5}}

Mabel Weiss, Watson's granddaughter, donated papers to Newcastle University, where they became the Spence Watson/Weiss Archive.{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=J. Graham |title=Newcastle University Library Special Collections |journal=Journal of Liberal History |date=Summer 2018 |issue=99 |page=44 |url=https://liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/99-Summer-2018-3.pdf}} This was in addition to a donation of books made in 1908 by Watson, now the Spence Watson Collection.{{cite book |last1=Attar |first1=Karen |title=Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland |date=31 May 2016 |publisher=Facet Publishing |isbn=978-1-78330-016-7 |page=301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQUUDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA301 |language=en}} William Bowes Morrell, a grandson, loaned papers of Watson to Parliament in 1973.{{cite book |title=House of Lords Record Office Memorandum |date=1974 |publisher=House of Lords Record Office |page=10 |language=en}}

Elizabeth (1838–1919) was a social reformer.{{cite web |title=Watson, Elizabeth Spence (1838-1919) social reformer - archives.trin.cam.ac.uk |url=https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/watson-elizabeth-spence-1838-1919-social-reformer |website=archives.trin.cam.ac.uk |language=en}} She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the third daughter of Edward Richardson (1806–1863) who was a tannery owner, and his wife Jane Wigham, in a family of seven daughters and four sons; the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson, born the previous year, was her elder brother, and a contemporary of Robert Spence Watson at John Collingwood Bruce's Newcastle school.{{cite ODNB|id=48151|first=Anne Pimlott|last=Baker|title=Richardson, John Wigham (1837–1908)}}{{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 |date=2 September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-43402-1 |pages=776–777 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&pg=PA776 |language=en}} Her sister Alice Mary married John Theodore Merz, who with her husband Robert, and six others, founded the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company.{{cite ODNB|id=34999|first=Albert| last=Snow|title=Merz, Charles Hesterman (1874–1940)}}{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Thomas Parke |title=Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 |date=March 1993 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-4614-4 |page=449 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g07Q9M4agp4C&pg=PA449 |language=en}}

Elizabeth was educated at a Quaker school in Lewes, Sussex. This was the boarding school run by the Dymond sisters, where her elder sister Anna Deborah Richardson had already been a pupil; Elizabeth (Lizzie) went there in 1853, after some home tuition by Anna.{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=Anna Deborah |title=Memoir of Anna Deborah Richardson: With Extracts from Her Letters |date=1877 |publisher=For private circulation |pages=5 and 25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ihsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA5 |language=en}} Then she attended an art school in Newcastle where she was a student of William Bell Scott.

File:Anna Deborah Richardson 1857-8.jpg

{{reflist}}

• Percy Corder (1914), The Life of Robert Spence Watson, Headley Bros., London
• John Morley, Joseph Cowen and Robert Spence Watson. Liberal Divisions in Newcastle Politics, 1873 - 1895, by E I Waitt, Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD at the University of Manchester, October 1972. Copies at Manchester University, Newcastle Central and Gateshead public libraries.

• [https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_RSW Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Robert Spence Watson]
• [http://benbeck.co.uk/fh/watson2a.html#M2.%20ROBERT%20SPENCE%20WATSON Entry on Robert Spence Watson, on Ben Beck's website]

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{{succession box|title=President of the National Liberal Federation|years=1890–1902|before=James Kitson|after=Augustine Birrell}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Robert Spence}}

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