📍Greenock, Inverclyde, UK
1736 – 1754“I was born in Greenock in January 1736, a busy port on the Firth of Clyde where ships came in from across the Atlantic. My father, also James, was a shipwright, ship owner and merchant who supplied and repaired ships and their instruments, and became one of the town's chief magistrates. Like much of Greenock's wealth, his trade was bound up with Atlantic commerce in goods grown by enslaved people, a part of my family's story that should not be hidden. I was a delicate child, often ill, so my mother, Agnes, taught me at home before I went to Greenock Grammar School. Latin bored me, but mathematics delighted me. My real school was my father's workshop by the harbour, where he gave me my own small set of tools and a bench of my own. I spent hours taking apart and rebuilding instruments, making models of cranes, pulleys and pumps. One of the workmen said I had a fortune at my finger ends. There is a famous story of me staring at a boiling kettle, but whether that is true or a fond family tale, I cannot say. When my father's business suffered losses, I had to make my own way. In 1755 I went to London to train as an instrument maker, then set up in Glasgow, where, mending a model steam engine, I found the improvements that powered the Industrial Revolution. Greenock remembers me with the Watt Library and Institution, which I helped begin by giving books for the improvement of its people.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today