THE Scotch Church in New York has
had a long line of notable ministers since its founding in 1756, and the
present pastor has won for himself an enviable reputation in other fields
as well as in his present charge.
Rev. Dr. Robert Watson was born in
Aberdeen, Scotland, May 6, 1865, the eldest son of Robert and Catherine
(Thomson) Watson, the descendant of two sturdy old Scottish families. He
removed with his parents to Canada in 1873, where Dr. Watson ‘s father was
for a number of years a Home Missionary in New Brunswick and afterward the
representative of the British-American Tract Society in the eastern part
of Canada and in Newfoundland. His mother lives with three sons and two
daughters in New Brunswick. One daughter is Superintendent of Yarmouth
Hospital, Nova Scotia, and one, with her husband, is a missionary in
Korea.
Dr. Watson was graduated, B.A., from
the University of New Brunswick, Canada, in 1893, and received his M.A.
from Princeton, 1895, and Ph.D. from Gale, 1901; honorary D.D., Reformed
Presbyterian College, Cedarville, 1905; Washington and Jefferson, 1915. He
was graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and ordained to the
Presbyterian ministry in 1896. He was supply of the Gaston Presbyterian
Church, Philadelphia, 1895, and pastor, Oxford, Pa., 1896-1905, Second
Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1905-1908, Church of the Covenant, Cincinnati,
1908-1915, and since 1915, of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, New York
City. He was Professor of Pastoral Theology in Lane Theological Seminary,
1905-1909, and is a trustee of Lincoln University, Pa., Western College
for Women, Oxford, Ohio, and University of Wooster.
Dr. Watson is a life-member and
Chaplain of the St. Andrew’s Society of the State of New York, and a
member of Alpha Alpha and Alpha Sigma, and of the Clergy Club, New York,
and Union Club, Cincinnati. He was a member of the Executive Committee,
special representative of the Evangelistic Committee, and member of the
Committee on Moral and Social Problems, General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church of the United States; and has been a Commissioner to
four General Assemblies and delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council,
Aberdeen, Scotland, June, 1913.
Dr. Watson married, July 23, 1896,
Georgia Maude Belyea, daughter of Henry Albert and Millicent (Nevers)
Belyea, a well-known Loyalist and Huguenot family of New Brunswick. They
have seven children: Paul Belyea, Knox Belyea, Grace Navarre, Ruth
Navarre, Robert Belyea, Mary Stewart and Robert Wycliffe. The eldest son
(Paul Belyea) is in the United States Naval Academy. Dr. Watson’s
residence is 10 West 96th Street, New York.
