The canonical history of John Watson’s School (as it was known after 1935) was written by Isobel Wallis and published by the John Watson Club in 1982.

The earliest proper account of the Institution was written by John Britton and published in 1829 as part of the extraordinary celebration of the neo-classical architecture of Edinburgh, Modern Athens!

The New John Watson’s Hospital.

This charity originated in a bequest, in 1759, by Mr. John Watson, writer to the signet, of the reversion of his fortune, for the endowment of a founding hospital. Under the management of the office-bearers of the society of writers to the signet, the reversion thus bequeathed – originally a comparatively small sum – had accumulated, a few years since, to nearly £100,000. It was then thought time to apply the money to some such charitable purpose as Mr. Watson had contemplated. The expediency of a foundling hospital, to which it had been destined, having been considered as, at least, problematical – an act of parliament was applied for and obtained, authorising the fund to be applied in the endowment of a hospital for the maintenance and education of destitute children. The branches of education taught in the institution are English, arithmetic, and writing. The building, which was designed by Mr. William Burn, is of Grecian architecture, and is adorned wiht an elegant hexastyle portico, supported by Grecian Doric fluted columns.
John Britton, 1829

However, the first full-length account of the School would not be published for another century. In fact, two came along at once. The first was a collected edition, published by the School, of D.M. Thomson’s articles about the School, which he had written during his editorship of the John Watson Club magazine The Levite. This outstanding collection has been digitized for this project and is reproduced in full below. For some screens, the version here may be preferable.

The second was shorter, article-length, but remains highly useful.This was written by Writer to the Signet Andrew Melville in his role as Convenor of the “1936” (the supplemental and updated edition of the “1890” History of the Society of Writers to His Majesty’s Signet). It reflects the successful end of the intense fight between 1928 and 1935 to secure the School’s future and the WS Society’s role within it:

John Watson’s Trust

Standing in its own beautiful grounds on the west side of Belgrave Road, Edinburgh, is the large and handsome building erected in 1828 which for 107 years was known as John Watson’s Institution, and is now to be known as John Watson’s School. John Watson, W.S., was Solicitor to the Post Office and Assistant Solicitor of Customs and Salt Duties. It is recorded of him that he was “a Writer to the Signet of eminence and considerable employment in his profession.” Further evidence of this is found in the fact that seven years after his admission to the Society he was appointed Substitute Keeper. He lived in Gosford’s Close, Lawnmarket, then quite a fashionable quarter, and at his country house near Liberton, and seems to have devoted a considerable part of his means to philanthropic purposes. He died on 5th November 1762, leaving a Deed of Settlement dated 2nd July 1759, under which the trustees were his cousin Andrew Fletcher of Milton (Lord Milton) and John Mackenzie of Delvine, WS. After making certain provisions for his widow and others he directed his trustees to apply the residue of his estate to such pious and charitable uses within the city of Edinburgh as they should think proper. When Mrs. Watson died in 1769 the residue amounted to about £4000. The trustees executed a Deed of Destination of the funds in their charge dated 13th August 1764, under which they devolved the management of the trust after their own deaths on the Keeper, the Deputy Keeper and the Commissioners of the Writers of the Signet for the time being. No steps, however, were taken towards building a hospital in terms of this deed, but the fund was preserved and under the care of successive treasurers, Samuel Mitchelson, W.S., and Vans Hathorn, W.S., accumulated to a very handsome figure. The Keeper, Deputy Keeper, and Commissioners in 1822 applied to Parliament for a special Act to regulate the trust, and the Act 3 George IV. cap.23 was passed in that year, under which the petitioners were authorised to build and endow “an hospital with all proper appendages for the maintenance and education therein of destitute children and bringing them up to be useful members of society and also for assisting in their outset in life such of them as may be thought to deserve and require such aid.” Thus armed, the Society, by its officials and Commissioners, put in hand the work of building and endowing the school. The master mind in the management of the trust and the erection of the school was Vans Hathorn, under whose keeping the funds amounted to over £110,000. It is surely fitting that he should be commemorated in the portrait painted by Sir John Watson Gordon, P.R.S.A. (who in his day painted most of the leading men in Scotland) which hangs in the place of honour in the great hall of the school, and this dignified old gentleman of eighty-four wiht white hair (or is it a wig?) and lace ruffles seems quietly and beneficently to preside at all the gatherings held there.

The school has been successfully administered by the Deputy Keeper and Commissioners acting through a committee of twelve of their number, and while all the boys and girls who have been fed, clothed, and educated within its walls have benefitted by their residence there at a crucial early period of their lives, many of them have risen to high positions obtained through good work done which can be traced to the knowledge they acquired at the school. And it is pleasing to note that among all former pupils there has been and is a splendid spirit of esprit de corps, which found expression in the formation and maintenance of the John Watson Club.

An Act of Parliament was passed in 1928 which created a commission to consider Scottish Educational Endowments, and John Watson’s Institution fell under its purview. At first the commission was unsympathetic and proposed certain schemes which were not at all acceptable to the Society. The minutes of the Commissioners show how the Society nearly lost its school, and the long and keen struggle to retain it. That they did so, even in a slightly modified form, is largely due to the unremitting perseverance of Sir William Campbell Johnston, then Deputy Keeper, and Mr. J.F. Fairweather, who ably represented the Society’s interests. After much discussion with the Educational Endowments Commissioners and the Scottish Education Department, a Scheme was adjusted which received the Royal Assent on 21st February 1935, and under which the school will continue to be carried on as before with certain alterations. The Society, by the Keepers and Commissioners, still remains the governing body, and appoints a Board of Directors of whom eight are to be nominated by the governing body, four by the Corporation of Edinburgh from its Education Committee, one by the Merchant Company and one by the John Watson Club, women being eligible as directors equally with men. Power is also given to take in paying pupils.

It is hoped that under the new constitution and in co-operation with the new directors the school will continue its highly useful and century-old career. The former pupils have enthusiastically supported the action of the Society in fighting for the maintenance of the school in the face of official proposals of quite another sort.

Andrew P. Melville WS 1936

The School’s 1975 closure came in the wake of an abrupt change in government policy towards grant-aided schools. The story is told in the introduction to the “1983” Register of the Members of the Society of Writers to HM Signet.

Sadly, John Watson’s School, after giving notable service to the community under the control of the Commissioners of the Signet for 148 years, had to be closed in 1975, following a decision by the then Government to phase out Government grants to grant-aided schools from session 1976/77. The school building was sold to the Crown Commissioners, the intended use being to house the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and it became the responsibility of the Secretary for State of Scotland, under the provisions of the Education (Scotland) Acts, to make a new scheme to regulate the Trust funds. In January 1979, the Governing Body submitted proposals for a new Scheme, and although, at the time of writing, the new Scheme has not yet been made it is expected that the Keepers and Commissioners of the Signet will continue to be the Governing Body (being, as such Governors, an incorporated body under the provisions of an Act of 1822) and that the Governing Body will delegate the detailed administration of the Trust to a Committee of Trustees [..] John Watson’s will continue as a substantial and important charitable trust able to do much good within an area of need akin to the area it has served for the past century and a half.
[The 1983]

This would become the John Watson’s Trust Scheme 1984 SI 1984/1480 S 120 which remains in force today and the modern Trust’s activity is described here.