The Papists' and the Davie Jones' Lists: Who is Watson the Poet?

Abstract

UP to the present, all Watson scholars believe that the Watson mentioned in the so-called Papists’ List (PL) of 15801 is the same one mentioned in the Davie Jones’ List (DJL) of October 1579,2 even though the discreteness of each record is manifest. The indistinction’s history is discussed by Harry Boyle and Wendy Phillips, who claim that Watson and his father were London-based attorneys,3 and by recent scholars such as Dana F. Sutton.4 The oversight in differentiating between the two records is possibly related to the issue of whether Watson led a career in law, for both records link a Watson to it. But since new biographical evidence has sufficiently revealed that Watson the poet was a draper’s son who inherited substantial wealth on both sides of his family,5 the likelihood of him vying for a fiercely competitive, financially unattractive, career opportunity in law is subsequently remote, rendering invalid any record associating him with attorneyship; hence the immediate preclusion of the DJL Watson and one of two Watsons mentioned in the PL once and for all.6

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