52 Ancestors: #4 Rev. James Bell Watt (1820 - 1860)

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

Reverend James Bell Watt, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina on the 4th of April, 1820.  His parents, James Watt and Margaret Bell, were both descendants of Ulster Scots pioneers who arrived in South Carolina in the mid-18th century.  He was said to have had a younger brother, and my own research so far has turned up three sisters: Martha Jane (m. James Robinson Castles), Rebecca Frances (m. David Wills), and Sarah Ann (m. Henry Carson Castles).  The Watts, like many of the other families of lowland Scottish heritage in their community, were members of the Presbyterian faith.

James Bell Watt

James began a classical education at Mt. Zion College in Winnsboro, SC but left school not long after on the occasion of his marriage to his cousin Nancy M. Bell on 31 December 1839.  Nancy's branch of the Bells were Associate Reformed Presbyterians, and sometime after they were married he also joined the Associate Reformed church.  After the birth of their first son, Frank, he picked up his studies again at Erskine College in Due West, SC and spent 1841-1842 there studying courses that he felt would be useful in his chosen field as a minister.  He did not graduate with a degree, but was licensed by the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Synod in 1843.  Rev. John Douglas's history of Steele Creek describes him as "tall and slender, a man of much personal dignity, of great suavity of manner, of ardent piety, a good preacher, fluent and impressive, though not boisterous."  In addition to his work as a minister, he also "wrote freely for the press" as a correspondent for the Due West Telescope.

In November of 1844 this "brilliant and magnetic" minister took his first assignment at Sardis and Steele Creek ARP churches in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.  On 10 April 1854 his wife Nancy died after a long illness, and Rev. Watt remarried later that year to Louisa Angeline Neal, whose family were members of the Steele Creek congregation of long standing.  In 1858 he broke his affiliation with the ARP church over the issue of closed communion (he didn't like that his own mother wasn't allowed communion in his church as she was Presbyterian, not ARP) and returned to the Presbyterian church.  He was installed as minister of the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church, but this appointment was to last for only two years.  On 16 September 1860, Rev. Watt died of typhoid fever he had contracted while ministering to the sick of his congregation.  Eleven days later his youngest son, Walter Wellington Watt, was born.  Rev. Watt was laid to rest in his church's cemetery.

Rev. Watt was survived by six children in all: sons Frank and Charles (my 3x great-grandfather) and daughter Margaret by his first wife, and sons William Neal, James Bell Jr., and Walter Wellington by his second.  Frank died at the hospital at Gordonsville, Virginia during the Civil War.  Charles and William Neal both went to Texas.  Margaret is supposed to also have married and moved to Texas.  J. B. Jr. and Walter remained in the Charlotte area and were members of the Steele Creek church where their father had been pastor.

See also:

• The History of Steele Creek Church, Mecklenburg County, N.C. - Rev. John Douglas (1901)
• Revised and expanded edition of Douglas's history - Steele Creek Historical Committee (1976)
• The Centennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (1905)