Samuel Watson (1662–1715), an English sculptor in wood and stone, was a native of

Heanor Heanor (/ˈhiːnə/) is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies north-east of Derby and forms, with the adjacent village of Loscoe, the civil parish and town council-administered area of Heano ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. He was employed at

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family sin ...

between 1690 or 1691 and 1711.

Family and work

Watson was born in Heanor, the son of a husbandman of Heanor, and his wife, Bridget, née Townsend. He was baptised there on 2 December 1662. Little is known of his early life. His grandson, White Watson, stated in a memoir that Samuel Watson "was a pupil of Mr. Charles Oakey, carver, in the parish of St Martin's in the Fields."A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660–1851
Retrieved 19 July 2016.
/ref> Oakey was employed by the 1st Duke of Beaufort on the remodelling of

Badminton House Badminton House is a large country house and Grade I Listed Building in Badminton, Gloucestershire, England, which has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late 17th century. The house, which has given its name to th ...

in 1683. Watson is known to have worked at

Burghley House Burghley House () is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the Cecil family. The exterior largely retains its Elizabet ...

and at

Sudbury Hall Sudbury Hall is a country house in Sudbury, Derbyshire, England. One of the country's finest Restoration mansions, it has Grade I listed building status. The National Trust Museum of Childhood is housed in the 19th-century servants' wing of Sudb ...

. Also working at Badminton, Burghley and Sudbury was

Grinling Gibbons Grinling Gibbons (4 April 1648 – 3 August 1721) was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and other ...

, who had a great influence on Watson's work.Trevor Brighton, "Watson, Samuel (baptised 1662, died 1715)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004
Retrieved 19 July 2016. Subscription required.
/ref> Working at Chatsworth in 1690–1691, he rose to be chief carver and remained there until 1711. His contemporary,

George Vertue George Vertue (1684 – 24 July 1756) was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period. Life Vertue was born in 1684 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, ...

, commented favourably on "The Ornaments Carv'd in wood & foliages by Watson sculptor in wood & stone. The boys in the Chapel and other parts of his works. Very fine... a most ingenious artist." Other work there has also been attributed to him. Late in life, Watson married Katherine Greensmith (c. 1679–1739) from Pilsley, a Chatsworth estate village. He retired and they settled at Heanor. Their first son died in 1711, but a second son was born in 1714 and Katherine was pregnant with another when her husband died of a stroke and was buried at Heanor on 31 March 1715. His sons, Henry and Samuel II, both trained as carvers and so did his grandson, White Watson, who designed a monument for his grandfather in Heanor Church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Samuel 1662 births 1715 deaths English sculptors English male sculptors 18th-century British sculptors People from Heanor