Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Watson, Pennington
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Lower Makefield Township


   PENNINGTON WATSON assistant superintendent shoe 
department, Sing Sing prison, was born in Middletown 
township, this county, November 3, 1844, and is a son of 
William F. and Hannah (Thackeray) Watson.  His grandfather 
was Nathan Watson, of an old Bucks county family, and a 
shoemaker by trade.  He was for many years a resident of 
Middletown and died there.  He is buried in the Friends' 
Newtown burying ground.  He had nine children: Marmaduke, 
Theodore, James, Howard, William F., Mary (Mrs. Henry 
Cooper), Elizabeth (Mrs. Morris Terry), Ann (Mrs. David 
Satterthwaite) and Lucy (Mrs. J. Stewart Depuy).  The 
maternal grandparents of Pennington Watson were Joshua and 
Rebecca (Johnson) Thackeray, who settled in Lower Makefield 
prior to 1790.  Joshua was a son of Joshua and Mary (Sands) 
Thackeray, and grandson of James and Esther Thackeray.  
William F. Watson was a shoemaker by trade and for many 
years in business in Yardley.  In 1877 he removed to Sing 
Sing, N. Y., where he was instructor in the shoe department 
of Sing Sing prison until his death, which occurred in 1882. 
 He had five children:  Pennington, Anna (deceased), Edmund 
(deceased), Emma (deceased) and Harry.  The last named is a 
resident of Sing Sing, and is instructor in the shoe 
department.  Our subject was reared in Yardley, and learned 
the trade in his father's shop.  During President Lincoln's 
entire administration he was the contractor for carrying the 
mails between Yardley, Pa., and Greensburg, N. J.  In 1863 
he was one of the emergency men during Lee's raid in 
Pennsylvania, serving two months in company C, 31st militia, 
under Captain Hart.  January 21, 1864, he enlisted in 
company A, 186th regiment, Pa. Vols., under Colonel H. A. 
Frink, and was honorably discharged August 15, 1865.  He 
then located in Wrightstown, this county, where he was in 
business one year.  From 1867 to 1870 he was in business in 
Salem, Ohio.  He then removed to Trenton, N. J., and entered 
the employ of the Bay State Shoe and Leather company, as 
instructor in their shops, remaining there until 1875, and 
continued in their employ in Brooklyn, N. Y., and Worcester, 
Mass., in the same capacity, until July, 1877, when he 
removed to Sing Sing, N. Y.  In 1886 he made the last for 
the largest shoe ever made in the United States, from which 
he has made four shoes by hand for advertising signs.  The 
first was sent to Savannah, Ga., the second to Atlanta, Ga., 
the third to Marlboro, Mass., and the fourth to 
Philadelphia.  Mr. Watson was married January 21, 1865, to 
Sarah A., daughter of Washington and Mary (Fort) Timbrook, 
of Upper Makefield.  He has five children:  George F., Frank 
T., Charles F. S., Lillie V. and Pennington R.