Walter Watson was the son of a handloom weaver in the village of
Chryston, in the parish of Calder, and county of Lanark, where he was
born, on the 29th March 1780. Having a family of other two sons and four
daughters, his parents could only afford to send him two years to
school; when at the age of eight, he was engaged as a cow-herd. During
the winter months he still continued to receive instructions from the
village schoolmaster. At the age of eleven his father apprenticed him to
a weaver; but he had contracted a love for the fields, and after a few
years at the loom he hired himself as a farm-servant. In the hope of
improving his circumstances, he proceeded to Glasgow, where he was
employed as a sawyer. He now enlisted in the Scots Greys; but after a
service of only three years, he was discharged, in June 1802, on the
reduction of the army, subsequent to the peace of Amiens. At Chryston he
resumed his earliest occupation, and, having married, resolved to employ
himself for life at the loom. His spare hours were dedicated to the
muse, and his compositions were submitted to criticism at the social
meetings of his friends. Encouraged by their approval, he published in
1808 a small volume of poems and songs, which, well received, gained him
considerable reputation as a versifier. Some of the songs at once became
popular. In 1820 he removed from Chryston, and accepted employment as a
sawyer in the villages of Banton and Arnbrae, in Kilsyth; in 1826 he
proceeded to Kirkintilloch, where he resumed the labours of the loom; in
1830 he changed his abode to Craigdarroch, in the parish of Calder, from
which, in other five years, he removed to Lennoxtown of Campsie, where
he and several of his family were employed in an extensive printwork. To
Craigdarroch he returned at the end of two years; in other seven years
he made a further change to Auchinairn which, in 1849, he left for
Duntiblae, in Kirkintilloch. He died at the latter place on the 13th
September 1854, in his seventy-fifth year. His remains were interred at
Chryston, within a few yards of the house in which he was born. His
widow, the "Maggie" of his songs, still survives, with only four of
their ten children.
Besides the volume already mentioned, Watson published a small
collection of miscellaneous poems in 1823, and a third volume in 1843. A
selection of his best pieces was published during the year previous to
his death, under the superintendence of several friends in Glasgow, with
a biographical preface by Mr Hugh Macdonald. The proceeds of this
volume, which was published by subscription, tended to the comfort of
the last months of the poet's life. On two different occasions during
his advanced years, he received public entertainments, and was presented
with substantial tokens of esteem. Of amiable dispositions, modest
demeanour, and industrious habits, he was beloved by all to whom he was
known. His poems generally abound in genuine Scottish humour, but his
reputation will rest upon a few of his songs, which have deservedly
obtained a place in the affections of his countrymen.