Item 0007 - Letter, 5 February 1884

Robert Watts was born on July 10, 1820, in Moneylane, County Down, Ireland.

He was a clergyman, educator, and theological writer. He was educated at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast. In 1848, he went to America, where he graduated from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Virginia, in 1849 and studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1852, he organized a Presbyterian mission in Philadelphia, gathered a congregation in Franklin House Hall, and was ordained its pastor in 1853. In 1863, on a visit to Ireland, he accepted a call to Lower Gloucester Street congregation, Dublin. In 1866, he was elected to the Chair of Systematic Theology at the Assembly's College, Belfast. Watts served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland from 1879 to 1880 and represented the pan-Presbyterian councils in the 1870s and 1880s. He wrote books on theological and doctrinal issues and contributed many articles to presbyterian and other periodicals.

In 1853, he married Margaret Newell (1822–1901). He died on July 26, 1895, in College Park, Belfast, Ireland.