{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}} {{Use British English|date=July 2015}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robert Spence Watson | honorific_suffix = | image = Robert Spence Watson (1837–1911).jpg | caption = | office = President of the Liberal Party | term_start = | term_end = | predecessor = James Kitson | successor = Augustine Birrell | birth_date = {{birth date|1837|06|8|df=y}} | birth_place = Gateshead, County Durham, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1911|03|11|1837|06|8|df=y}} | death_place = | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable }}
'''Robert Spence Watson''' (8 June 1837 – 2 March 1911) was an English solicitor, reformer, politician and writer. He became noted for pioneering labour arbitrations. While refusing invitations to stand for Parliament, he was an influential figure in the Liberal Party throughout his later life.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=36777|first=H. C. G.|last= Matthew|title=Watson, Robert Spence (1837–1911)}}</ref>
==Life and career== 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.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.philanthropynortheast.com/the-philanthropists/watson-robert-spence |title=Archived copy |access-date=11 January 2020 |archive-date=26 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240326220534/http://www.philanthropynortheast.com/the-philanthropists/watson-robert-spence |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name=watburt>{{Cite web |url=http://www.watsonburton.com/page/robertspencewatson.cfm |title=Archived copy |access-date=29 November 2011 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230131/http://www.watsonburton.com/page/robertspencewatson.cfm |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> He returned to the North East and was articled to his father.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name=watburt/> In 1995 a blue commemorative plaque was erected outside his home.<ref>[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 }}</ref>
==Liberal Party politics== Watson's father was a liberal radical.<ref name="AJIL">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Watson also became close to Joseph Chamberlain, as they and others worked in the mid-1870s to set up the National Liberal Federation (NLF). This was a point of difference, however, with Cowen, who disliked the caucus or party machine system the NLF was designed to provide.<ref>{{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=108 |language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Cowen, who had been campaigning against the policies of William Gladstone, did not endorse Morley; who was though elected in the by-election over the Tory Gainsford Bruce with the "commanding influence" of Watson behind him.<ref>{{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=131–2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Thomas Humphry |title=Men of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries, Containing Biographical Notices of Eminent Characters of Both Sexes |date=1887 |publisher=G. Routledge and Sons |page=747 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vucZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA747 |language=en}}</ref> Cowen failed to get Lowthian Bell to run, and his candidate Elijah Copland gained little traction despite support from Cowen's newspapers.<ref>{{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=134–5 |language=en}}</ref> Moisey Ostrogorsky wrote (English translation 1902) of the proceedings:
<blockquote>The desired effect of the ''fait accompli'', intended to discourage any other serious candidature, was produced, and the candidate of the Caucus was elected. Encouraged by this success, the Caucus became still more intolerant and intractable with regard to its grievances against the too independent member.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ostrogorski |first1=M. |title=Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties|volume=1 |date=1902 |publisher=Macmillan And Company Limited. |page=236 |url=https://archive.org/details/democracyandtheo031734mbp/page/236/mode/1up}}</ref></blockquote>
D. A. Hamer, in his biography of Morley, concluded that Ostrogorsky's allegations amounted to saying that Morley had been used in a plot to reduce Cowen's influence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hamer |first1=D. A. |title=John Morley: Liberal intellectual in politics |date=1968 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198213980 |page=128}}</ref> In 1885 Watson was in the group of leading Liberals lobbying Morley to campaign against British involvement in the Mahdist War, against Chamberlain's view.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hamer |first1=D. A. |title=John Morley: Liberal intellectual in politics |date=1968 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198213980 |page=143}}</ref>
Watson was president of the Newcastle Liberal and Radical Association from 1884 to 1897.<ref name="AJIL"/> In 1890 he was elected president of the NLF, 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;<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ODNB"/>
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=34035|first=H. C. G.|last=Matthew|title=Hudson, Sir Robert Arundell (1864–1927)}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
==Charity and education== From the time of his return to Newcastle from London, Watson was involved with rescue work among street children through the local Shoeblack Brigade.<ref>{{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}}</ref> This was a charitable cause particularly promoted by the Newcastle solicitor Edward Glynn;<ref>{{cite web |title=Inauguration Of Ts Wellesley |url=https://www.thebluejackets.co.uk/research/action/TSWellesleyInauguration/html |website=www.thebluejackets.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> Glynn worked with the Gateshead police officer John Elliott, a former Chartist.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> By the 1860s Watson and his wife were involved in managing the Newcastle Industrial and Ragged School.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Watson was a long-term secretary of the school, for many year jointly with John Thompson Oliver.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name=watburt/> At the Society, Watson ran adult education campaigns, featuring the songs of Joe Wilson.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=51480|first=Robert|last=Colls|title=Wilson, Joseph [Joe] (1841–1875)}}</ref>
Watson helped to found the Durham College of Science in 1871, one of the group of Newcastle worthies around William Lake;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bettenson |first1=E. M. |title=The University of Newcastle upon Tyne . A Historical Introduction, 1834-1971 |date=1971 |publisher=University of Newcastle upon Tyne |location=Newcastle |page=21}}</ref> it was later to become Armstrong College, and so part of Newcastle University. Watson became the first independent president of Armstrong College in 1910, taking over from George Kitchin who had held the post ''ex officio'' as Dean of Durham.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bettenson |first1=E. M. |title=The University of Newcastle upon Tyne . A Historical Introduction, 1834-1971 |date=1971 |publisher=University of Newcastle upon Tyne |location=Newcastle |page=80}}</ref> He was instrumental in the founding of the Newcastle Free Public Library.<ref name=watburt/>
==Activism== [[File:Robert Spence Watson 001.jpg|thumb|Watson, in ''Proceedings of the Tenth Universal Peace Congress'', 1902]] Watson was impressed by an 1889 lecture by Sergey Kravchinsky.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=62226|first=David|last=Saunders|title=Kravchinsky, Sergey Mikhailovich [pseud. Stepniak] (1851–1895)}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The revolutionary {{ill|David Soskice (1866–1941)|ru|Соскис, Давид Владимирович}} settled in the United Kingdom in 1898; he became editor of ''Free Russia'' around 1904.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Glazzard |first1=Andrew |title=Conrad's Popular Fictions: Secret Histories and Sensational Novels |date=26 January 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-55917-3 |page=54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EnHeCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT54 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Heywood |first1=Anthony J. |last2=Smele |first2=Jonathan D. |title=The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives |date=3 April 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-25329-6 |page=264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uncZdrSj4WQC&pg=PA264 |language=en}}</ref> After the ''Bloody Sunday (1905)'' incident in Russia, Watson had to make clear that his Quaker and pacifist beliefs were not compatible with fundraising for arms.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heywood |first1=Anthony J. |last2=Smele |first2=Jonathan D. |title=The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives |date=3 April 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-25330-2 |page=268 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M9QqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA268 |language=en}}</ref> In 1907 Watson with Lord Coleridge defended Vladimir Burtsev, charged in London with incitement to murder.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=62227|first=David|last=Saunders|title=Volkhovsky, Felix Vadimovich (1846–1914)}}</ref>
In 1897 Watson published ''The History of English Rule and Policy in South Africa'', and he joined the South Africa Conciliation Committee.<ref name=Howe>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Ceadel">{{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}}</ref>
==Works== Watson was a prolific author, publishing mostly on education, politics and industry.
===Travel=== *''The Villages around Metz'' (1870).<ref>{{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}}</ref> Watson travelled to Alsace-Lorraine in 1870 to support Quaker relief work in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, having raised £70,000.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name="AJIL"/> thumb|''A Visit to Wazan'': "The Author in Moorish Dress" *''A Visit to Wazan: The Sacred City of Morocco'' (1880).<ref>{{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}}</ref> Watson in 1879 visited the pilgrimage site Ouazzane in Morocco, with help from John Drummond Hay.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Its ''sharif'' Abd es-Salam had in 1873 married, in Tangier, the British woman Emily Keene, the ceremony being carried out by Drummond Hay.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The book was welcomed by ''The Westminster Review'' as an alternative to the account by Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs;<ref>{{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}}</ref> but the reviewer in ''The Athenæum'' was critical of it as superficial.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Athenaeum |date=1881 |publisher=J. Lection |page=160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOBCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA160 |language=en}}</ref>
Watson was a mountaineer and a member of the Alpine Club, making his first Alpine climb in 1861 with Henry Tuke Mennell.<ref name="InMemoriam">{{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}}</ref> He wrote in 1863 in the first volume of the ''Alpine Journal'' about his ascent with his wife of the Balfrinhorn.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alpine Journal - Contents 1863 |url=https://alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1863.html |website=alpinejournal.org.uk}}</ref>
===Poetry=== *''Cædmon, the first English poet'' (1875)<ref>{{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}}</ref> * "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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> * ''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.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=36118|first=John|last=Langton|title=Skipsey, Joseph (1832–1903)}}</ref>
Watson published two books of his own verse, ''Waifs and Strays'' (1864) including poems by his father, and ''Wayside Gleanings'' (1880).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corder |first1=Percy |title=The Life of Robert Spence Watson |date=1914 |publisher=Headley Bros. |page=315 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Reilly|first=Catherine W.|title=Late Victorian Poetry, 1880–1899|page=501|date=1994|publisher=Mansell |isbn=0720120012}}</ref> His song "The Life Brigade" was set to music by Thomas Haswell.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Carols "The Children's Christmas" were published set to music by Myles Birket Foster III (1851–1922).<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
===Family history=== Watson left a 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
===Education and the Literary and Philosophical Society=== *''Industrial Schools'' (1867)<ref>{{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}}</ref> *''A Plan for Making the Society more extensively useful, as an educational institution'' (1868) *"The Best Method of providing Higher Education in Boroughs", Social Science Association paper published 1871<ref>{{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}}</ref> *''Education in Newcastle-upon-Tyne'' (1884)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Relations of Labour to Higher Education'' (1884)<ref name="WW"/> *''The History of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1793–1896)'' (1897)<ref>{{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}}</ref>
===Industry and industrial relations=== *''Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration and Sliding Scales'' (1886)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Peaceable Settlement of Labour Disputes'' (1889)<ref name="WW"/> *''Labour, Past, Present and Future'' (1889)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Recent History of Industrial Progress'' (1891)<ref name="WW"/> * 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.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=75290|first=Robert|last=Fyson|title=Shaw, Charles (1832–1906)}}</ref>
===Politics, colonial and foreign policy=== *''The history of English rule and policy in South Africa'' (1879) J. Forster, Newcastle upon Tyne.<ref>{{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}}</ref> *''Irish Land Law Reform'' (1881)<ref name="WW">{{Who's Who|title=Watson, Rt Hon. Robert Spence|id=U192049}}</ref> *''The Proper Limits of Obedience to the Law'' (1887)<ref>{{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}}</ref> *''England's Dealings with Ireland'' (1887)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Robert Spence |title=England's Dealings with Ireland |date=1887 |publisher=National Liberal Federation |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/englandsdealings00watsuoft}}</ref> *''Indian National Congresses'' (1888)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Duties of Citizenship'' (1895)<ref name="WW"/> *''The National Liberal Federation: From Its Commencement to the General Election of 1906'' (1907)<ref>{{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}}</ref> *''The Reform of the Land Laws'' (1906)<ref name="WW"/> * 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<ref>{{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}}</ref>
==Honours, awards and memberships== 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;<ref>{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Watson, Robert Spence|volume=3}}</ref> as a concession to his Quaker views, he did not wear a ceremonial sword as he was sworn in.<ref name="Ceadel"/>
==Family== On 9 June 1863 Watson married Elizabeth Richardson at the Friends' meeting house, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.<ref name=watburt/> In July they were in Switzerland, and on 6 July with guides they made the first ascent of Balfrin.<ref name="InMemoriam"/>
The couple had six children:<ref name=watburt/>
* Mabel, eldest daughter, married in 1896 Hugh Richardson of Sadberge.<ref>{{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}}</ref> * Ruth (died 1914), married in 1912 Edmund Innes Gower, schoolmaster.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> * Evelyn, married 1898 Frederick Ernest Weiss.<ref>{{Who's Who|title=Weiss, Frederick Ernest|id=U244295}}</ref> * Mary, married 1904 Francis Edward Pollard of Bootham School.<ref>{{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}}</ref> * Bertha, married 1902 John Bowes Morrell.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
Arnold, the only son, died in 1897.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
Mabel Weiss, Watson's granddaughter, donated papers to Newcastle University, where they became the Spence Watson/Weiss Archive.<ref>{{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}}</ref> This was in addition to a donation of books made in 1908 by Watson, now the Spence Watson Collection.<ref>{{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}}</ref> William Bowes Morrell, a grandson, loaned papers of Watson to Parliament in 1973.<ref>{{cite book |title=House of Lords Record Office Memorandum |date=1974 |publisher=House of Lords Record Office |page=10 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * 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.
==External links== *[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]
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{succession box|title=President of the National Liberal Federation|years=1890–1902|before=James Kitson|after=Augustine Birrell}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Robert Spence}} Category:1837 births Category:1911 deaths Category:19th-century English lawyers Category:Alumni of University College London Category:British travel writers Category:English Quakers Category:English solicitors Category:Historians of South Africa Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:People associated with Newcastle University Category:People educated at Bootham School Category:People from Gateshead Category:Politicians from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:Presidents of the Liberal Party (UK) Category:Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:British mountain climbers