Memorials of the lineage, early life, education and development of the genius of James Watt

188 MEMORIALS OF
" Remember me to my cousin Anna. I could not go to see Mrs.
Wilson, but saw Mrs. Birnie."
The following is the inscription as it now appears in the West
Churchyard of Greenock : —
In memory of
JAMES WATT,
Merchant in Greenock,
A benevolent and ingenious man,
and a zealous promoter of the
improvements of the Town,
Who died 1782, aged 84,
of
AGNES MUIRHEID,
his Spouse,
Who died 1755, aged 52 ;
and of
JOHN WATT,
their Son,
II ho perished at Sea, 1763, aged 23.
To his revered Parents,
and to his Brother — James Watt
has placed this memorial.
These stones, which cover the mortal remains of the immediate
ancestors of Watt, are rapidly suffering decay in the form of the
letters and figures. Being laid flat, and consequently frequently
trodden upon by those resorting to the churchyard, — for here, too,
repose the ashes of one consecrated in the popular memory, whose
rustic graces of person and mind inspired some of the tenderest
strains of our national poesy— the " Highland Mary" of Burns,—