Peter William Watson, a resident of Hull, East Yorkshire, is noted primarily for his two volume work
Dendrologia Britannica. He was also one of the founding members of the Hull Botanical Garden in 1812.
His entry in the Dictionary of National Biography states that he "occupied his early life in trade"
which is a little dismissive as there is evidence that he was a successful Hull merchant. Local
newspapers from the first decade of the 19th century carry notices advertising ships bound to and
from the Baltic and Archangel.
References to his plant records in various Naturalists' guides, plus his own allusions, demonstrate that
he was an active East Yorkshire field botanist but little seems to be known of his "herborisations."
If his notebooks exist they would shed interesting light on the early botanical exploration of the region.
This was lamented by J F Robinson in his 1902 Hull Flora (see below).