Rockingham Castle and the Watsons

by Charles Wise

1891

Edward Watson of Lyddington, Rutland County, a member of an ancient family, was a justice of the peace and a "surveyor general." He and his wife, Emma Smith, are said to have been the parents of fifteen children; seven are listed in his will. When he died in 1530, he held leases on a half a dozen parsonages and several "lordships, lands, and tenements" and was lord of some fourteen manors. The Watsons of Rockingham Castle were his descendants.