Thomas Watson S.T.B. was presented to the rectory of "Owlde Rosse, diocese of Ferns" (Co Wexford) in 1597, dying two years later. John Watson I arrived in Ireland from Cumberland in the early 1600s, according to The Carlow Gentry (Jimmy O'Toole 1994). He settled at Ardristan, Co Carlow, where he had leased land.
His son John Watson II was appointed commissioner under the great seal of Ireland "to enquire into the causes and cruel ties of the Irish rebellion of 1641". It was this man who built Kilconner House in the townland of Kilconner in the Co Carlow parish of Fennagh. This residence continued in the family for centuries and is extant to the present day.
In the 1650s the Religious Society of Friends, popularly called Quakers, was founded, and John Watson III, born in 1649, became a member. This family was among several Quaker families in Co Carlow, and though King James II granted Quakers a charter, they suffered persecution after the Williamite victory. "They objected on principle to the payment of tithes to the Established Church and, along with Catholics, some of them were jailed in Carlow during the tithe war".
However Quaker William Watson, Summerville (later Ballingarrane), Co Tipperary, born 1779, joined the Established Church, while other Watsons became Catholics. Edward and Hiacinth Watson were reputed regulars of friars of the Dominican Order in 1744, noted in Irish Priests in Penal Times, as residing - with others - in a house without the West Gate. Convert Rolls notes that Mrs Mary Watson of the parish of St Werburgh, Dublin city, had converted in 1757.
In 1622 a Stephen Watson lived in Castle Street, Dublin, and the 1659 Census of Ireland lists John Watson, merchant, in the Newstreet Ward, in the Co Dublin barony of Newcastle & Uppercross. The 1814 Directory shows Watsons in counties Offaly, Carlow, Meath, Tipperary, Waterford, Antrim and Down.
The Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) shows nine Watson holdings in Co Carlow, with 1,221 acres at Kilconner. They were also in counties Dublin, Kildare, Laois and Wexford. In Munster they were in Cork, Tipperary and Waterford; they were in Co Galway and in Ulster in Monaghan, Derry, Antrim, Down (eight holdings) and Armagh (10 holdings). Most of these holdings were small, the largest being the 2,991 acres in Co Antrim, the property of a Co Wicklow Watson.
Later Watson residences in Carlow were at Lumcloone, Altamont, and Ballydarton. John Henry II Watson was the first master and one of the founders of the Tullow Hunt in 1808. "This marked the beginning of what became a legendary Watson association with hunting not alone in Carlow, but also in County Meath, the Cotswolds and Australia".
There are 255 Watson telephone entries south of the Border and 690 in the North. Those in the South are fairly evenly spread, whilst those in the North are very numerous in Cos Antrim and Down. This Scottish and English surname derives from Wat(t), a diminutive of Walter, and Watson means "son of Wat(t)".
Though the first Watson settled in Leinster, the name was listed early on in the Derry Plantation of 1610. A man named Watson was installed at the Salmon Leap, Coleraine, "to attend to the shipping and see there was no interference with the fisheries". Hugh Watson was among the musket and caliver who mustered for the town of Coleraine in 1622.
The Corporation of Waterford Council Books 1662-1700 notes that in 1685, Nathaniel and James Watson were sworn in as wardens of the clothiers' company, while in 1686, Mr Joseph Watson was renting Rosbercon, Co Kilkenny. Before the 1780s, Jacob Strangman and Watson was the largest of a number of exporting firms in Waterford. Solomon Watson founded a private bank in Johnston Street, Clonmel, Co Tipperary in 1800.
In January 1796, the Co Wexford United Irishman and pro-Catholic agitator Edward Sweetman had the misfortune to accidentally bump into the lady being escorted to the opera by one Capt Watson. This resulted in a challenge to a duel, resulting in the death of Sweetman.
That charming Quaker Henry Cecil Watson spent 10 days on Inis Meain in August 1912, and the photographs he took are "striking images of the life of a community at a time when the people were seemingly unaware that their traditions and ways were on the brink of collapse". (Inis Meain Images, Wolfhound Press 1999). As a result of his visit, Watson decided to learn the Irish language.
Kilconner is the anglicised form of Coill Chonchuir, "Conchuir"s wood".