American War of Independence. Owing to his father's role as a Founding Father and William's loyalty to Britain, the relationship between father and son became strained past the breaking point. When Benjamin decided to take up the Patriot cause, he tried to convince William to join him, but the son refused.

William Watson, an English pioneer of electrical studies, was born Apr. 3, 1715. Watson introduced the Leyden jar, which had been discovered in 1745, to the Royal Society of London, and he used it to do a variety of experiments, including conducting electricity across the Thames on a wire.

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.

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.