George Watson's Memorial

Georgius Watsonius

mercator ac civis Edinburgenus

ex maioribus indidem civibus mercatoribusque

longa serie oriundus,

eades hasce exstrui, amplasque non a parentibus relictas,

sed honesta sua (propitiante Numine) industria

quaesitas opes

eidem omnium largitori Deo redonari

atque

a spectbili mercatorum Edinensium sodalitio

perpetuo administrari

ad egenos ex eodem sodalitio Mercatorum filios,

quos ipse coelebs et prolis expers

suorum loco adoptari voluit,

hanc in domum recipiendos, ibique alendos,

et in vera pietate, bonis literis, re praesertim

Arithmetica et Rationaria

(cui potissimum felicia fortunarum suarum incrementa

accepta ipse referebat) erudiendos,

supremis voluntatis suae tabulis iussit.

v Idus Feb. A.P.C.N. MDCCXXIII

George Watson

merchant and citizen of Edinburgh

descended from a long line of citizens and merchants

from that same place,

ordered this building to be erected, and his ample wealth, not left to him by his parents,

but earned by his own honest industry (through the grace of God)

to be given back to that same God who is the giver of all things

and

to be administered in perpetuity

by the honourable Company of Merchants of Edinburgh,

for the needy sons of the same Company of Merchants

whom he himself, a bachelor and without offspring

wished to be adopted in place of his own,

to be received into this house, and brought up there,

and to be educatedin true piety in the liberal arts, and especially

in Arithmetic and Accountancy

(to which especially he himself attributed the successful increase

of his fortunes)

in his last will and testament.

9 Feb. 1723