It was Watson who first realized that electricity can travel only through a completed circuit, and that the earth can be a part of that circuit. He presented a number of papers on electricity to the Royal Society from 1745 to 1748, and many of these were then published in pamphlet form.

William Franklin (ca. 1730/31-1813) was the thirteenth, and last, of New Jersey's royal governors. He was the natural son of Philadelphia printer and diplomat Benjamin Franklin, through whose influence William was appointed to the New Jersey governorship on 9 September 1762.

William's son, Temple, after a failed business career in the U.S., lived with his father and stepmother for a time, and followed in his grandfather and father's footsteps and had an illegitimate daughter, Ellen (15 May 1798 London – 1875 Nice, France), with Ellen Johnson d'Evelin, the sister-in-law of his stepmother, ...

Sir William Watson (2 August 1858 – 11 August 1935) was an English poet, popular in his time for the celebratory content, and famous for the controversial political content, of his verse. Initially popularly recognised, he was then neglected because of changing tastes.