Rash's Surname Index
Notes for James Horatio WATMOUGH
James Horatio Watmough was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and died in Philadelphia, January 23, 1811. He was the son of Capt. Edward Watmough, of the British Army, who held a commission in the Earl of Drumlanrig's Regiment, and Maria Ellis, who were married January 30, 1748-9. Captain Watmough died young and is buried at his home in Halifax. His wife, who was the eldest daughter of Dr. Edward Ellis and Mary Willard, of Boston, also died young. Soon after her death Captain Watmough was ordered away from Halifax, leaving his four sons with their mother's family. The third son died shortly after his father's departure. John, the eldest, entered the British Army and was killed in battle; Edward Ellis Watmough, the second son, entered the Navy and was killed by the accidental discharge of a friend's pistol; and James Horatio Watmough remained with his Aunt Sarah
(Ellis) Deschamps, widow of Judge Deschamps of Halifax, until his fourteenth year, at which time he was adopted by his mother's cousin, Henry Hope, then at the head of the eminent banking house of Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, Holland. This Mr. Hope was a very wealthy man. He died in 1811 in London, where his home was at that time. He undertook to educate young Watmough and to do for him as he would have done for an own child, alleging his affection for his cousin, Maria, the boy's mother, as the motive for his desire to do all he could for one, at least, of her sons. Watmough's good aunt, perceiving the superior advantages Mr. Hope was able to offer the boy, sent James to her childless cousin, who fulfilled his promises, and, taking the lad to Amsterdam, gave him a thorough mercantile education in addition to the usual academic course, intending to take him into the banking firm of which he was the head. It is said that it was also Mr. Hope's intention to make James Horatio Watmough his heir, and that he was very desirous that he should marry Henrietta Goddard, the eldest daughter of his only sister, Harriet, but, as the boy had only the affection of a friend for her, he would not comply with the wishes of his guardian. Instead, he gratified a longing to return to his home land. Before his departure Mr. Hope provided for him handsomely, and sent him to Halifax on one of his own ships. Remaining there for a few years he went to Boston when the Revolutionary War was near an end, and thence to Philadelphia, where he met Anna Carmick, to whose father he had letters of introduction, and married her. Mr. Hope then enabled him to enter into a large mercantile house of Cape Fran‡ais, in the West Indies. The first son was named after Mr. Hope, who settled a large amount of money--many thousand pounds sterling--on his namesake, allowing the parents to draw the interest during their lives. Mr. Watmough purchased a fine tract of land, on which he built a splendid house, to which he gave the name of "Hope Lodge." Here he resided with his family for some years. He died January 23, 1811. Above all things James Horatio Watmough was noted for his public philanthropies. He was also noted for liberal gifts to his friends and relations. It is said that he was a very elegant and accomplished man, speaking six languages with great fluency.
His children were: Henry Hope, who died young; Maria Ellis, Margaretta, John Goddard, and Edward Carmick.
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