It is said to have possessed some of the earliest wall paper used in America, outside of Boston. The jambs, mantels and hearth were constructed of marble and imported from Amsterdam. The carpet was made from the wool of sheep raised on the farm, and being the first carpet used in those parts attracted visitors from points even forty miles away. A part of the mansion was recently still standing, and occupied by descendants of Matthew. The present is the sixth American generation of the family. Matthew, born in 1696, died in 1807; having completed 110 years of life and started on his 111th.
It is said that up to the day of his death, his faculties were unimpaired, except for blindness. On the day that he was 100 years old he called for his saddle-horse, mounted without assistance and rode off briskly for a couple of miles. Upon his return, the negro servant being absent, and the great gate unopened, he touched up his horse and cleared it at a bound.
Further interesting facts regarding Matthew Watson are found in an article published[[52]] some years before his death. It was written at Barrington and reads as follows:
“There is now living in this town Matthew Watson, Esq., in the 105th year of his age, in a pretty good state of health, and in the enjoyment of his faculties, except being blind. He was born in Coleraine in the province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland, in March, A. D. 1696, from whence he, with his father and mother, four brothers and one sister, migrated and arrived at Boston, A. D. 1712, from whence they removed to and settled in Leicester, in the county of Worcester (Mass.), where he hath one brother, Deacon Oliver Watson, now living. Mr. Watson came to this town A. D. 1722, where by his industry he acquired a pretty handsome fortune. He hath sustained the office of a Justice of the Peace in the town, and was formerly a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Bristol. He hath been a member of the Congregational church in this town between seventy and eighty years without censure. He hath ten children now living, the youngest of whom is fifty-three years of age, all in a married state, except his eldest and youngest daughters, who are widows. He was born in the seventeenth, lived through the eighteenth and is now progressing in the nineteenth century.”
The foregoing extract was found, in 1893, by the writer while engaged in examining files of the Providence Gazette at the rooms of the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence. As the article was written at Barrington during the lifetime of the centenarian, some, at least, of the facts were probably obtained from his own lips. The extract may therefore be considered as authoritatively settling certain data which have long been in dispute.
Matthew is said to have had fifteen children, ten of whom were living at the time of his decease.[[53]] The names of these ten were Abigail, Mary, Rachel, Mercy, Bethiah, Matthew, Lydia, William, John and Samuel. There were also many grandchildren and great grandchildren. In Arnold’s “Vital Record of Rhode Island” appears an entry under Barrington which states in substance that “Robert Watson and Mary Orr married at Londonderry, Ireland, 1695.” They were probably the parents of Matthew, the Barrington settler, who had the names recorded for purpose of reference; or they may have been so recorded by some other member of the family. The centenarian was twice married.[[54]] Bethia, his first wife, died in 1778, leaving ten children. One of Matthew’s descendants, John Watson, married Ann Waterman, daughter of Capt. Asa Waterman, of Rhode Island, who was assistant commissary-general during the Revolution. She was related to Governor Cooke of Rhode Island.
Among the centenarian’s descendants were the following: Robert S. W. Watson who wedded Patience Blygh. He was born in 1804; Annie Cooke Watson, born in 1831; Dr. S. T. Watson, born 1832; John W. Watson, 1835; Mary H. Watson, 1837; Henry H. Watson, 1839; Robert S. Watson, 1843; Emily F. Watson, 1845; Robert S. Watson, 1846; Charlotte A. Watson, 1850.
Nearly every generation of the family has had a Matthew in it. A second Matthew Watson was born in 1741.[[55]] A Matthew Watson of a later generation married Abby B. Wheaton, of Providence, in 1818. The Providence Directory for 1844 shows “Matthew Watson, manufacturer, rear Roger Williams Bank,” and gives his residence as Angell street. In February, 1892, the following interesting communication appeared in the Providence Journal. Its author is thought to have been Matthew Watson, of Providence, a recent representative of the name.