California state Controller 1867-1872.

Following is a letter written on 19 January 1892 by Robert Watt to his daughter Elizabeth, from Oakland, CA

My dear Lizzie,
I thought I would notice your remarks in your letter of Dec. 19th touching my family affairs, for I think you are forming wrong conclusions, drawn probably from only an imperfect knowledge of them, or you may be judging of things as you find them now. You assume that Aunt Grace and myself are the only ones of the family that have done well.
Have you forgotten you had an Uncle William who in point of ability and natural force was away ahead of me and an Aunt Phinnie who was as much like him as a woman could resemble a man and who considering her opportunities, accomplished more than any of us. There were others in the family not lacking in natural capacities, but ill considered and unfortunate marriages did much to drag them down and keep them down.
It is natural for you and Janet to compare things with what you have been accustomed to in California, but do not forget that conditions of life here are much easier than in any other part of the world and much easier now both in Scotland and America than in my boyhood days half a century ago. It is true we were not brought up in luxury, the household economy was of the most frugal kind, but still our position and circumstances were a little better than those around us, and as we are all liable to look at things comparatively, that fact made us feel well, and we were not without advantages either. We had the advantage of a good parentage, a very superior and good living couple, we had both good (illegible) and example and plenty of it. The younger generation knew Grandmother very well and can tell you all about her, a better and more self sacrificing mother never lived, but only Aunt Grace will be able to tell you much about Grandfather Watt. He was a tall man, over six feet, of medium build and quite good looking. What schooling he had was mostly obtained in the last century and young people in his circumstances were not burdened with it in those days, but he was quite intelligent and to say he was honest would not express it all, he was the very soul of honor, no man in any station of life was ever animated by more lofty sentiments than he. But he was not very ambitious, he was rather disposed to be content with his lot and it was at this point that Grandmothers energies came into play.
As illustrating the last named trait in his character, as also his wise sense of honor, I might mention a very important event in my own early history. I had had a letter from my brother William in America telling me he would soon make us a short visit. Filled with a desire to return to America with him I went home to ask my parents consent. Father did not take to it kindly, he could not understand this spirit that had got into young men, this desire to leave their own country where there were plenty of opportunities etc. He consented, however, but on condition that I first obtain the consent of my employer, for, while I was not under contract, there was an implied understanding that the term of my apprenticeship should be five years and I had more than three months to serve. Well this consent was easily gotten, for I had the good will of my employer and all my fellows, as was evidenced by their presenting me with a fine watch guard chain, the Foreman putting it around my neck after making a little speech on the eve of my departure. I had no watch to attach to it but I appreciated the gift all the same.
Not many days after he had consented to my leaving, on a November morning in the year 1851, my brother William and I stood over fathers bedside to receive his parting admonition and blessing, he was on a sickbed from which he never arose, and the scene was so touching that it made a deep impression on me, I will never forget it. Less than a year from that morning when I went out into the world sad, but so hopeful, I found myself stranded in the City of Valparaiso, Chile. I there shipped as an "Ordinary Seaman" on board a vessel called the "John Baring" bound for San Francisco. The term "Ordinary Seaman", in nautical parlance, means that there were certain of the more expert duties of a sailor, such as steering etc. that I did not undertake to do.
The voyage to San Francisco occupied nearly two months and as I did not take "my trick at the wheel", as the sailors termed steering, my turn "on the look-out" in the night watches came often. As I paced the forecastle deck for four hours at a time with not a soul to speak to, I had much time for reflection. I then lived over and over again all those scenes I have referred to. I thought much of home and my now widowed mother, forming many resolutions and plans about her.
In looking back I think that all these experiences were "advantages" which helped to carry me through that terrible period of excitement and temptation to young men, which we experienced in what we now term "the early days of California".
No dear Lizzie, do not say I had no advantages, a little more schooling as a boy would have been a good thing, so would a little more leisure as a young man to get habits of study which I could not acquire later, but then if I had these I might have lacked something else.
My first gold mining venture was in gravel mining and the training I had got as a boy on the farm fitted me to handle the shovel and other implements we used in washing. As I progressed and got into deep quartz mining requiring the erection of machinery. My mechanical training told and there was hardly any sort of mechanical work I could not do. The technical education I acquired at night school when an apprentice, with a little brushing up, fitted me to do the surveying in the mines, so on the whole I got just the sort of training to make a good all round man, barring the accomplishments of course.
I lament often that my children have been brought up too luxuriously, illy fitted for a hard battle with the world should misfortune overtake them. I think if they had only had the advantages their father enjoyed in his youth, how much easier it would be for them in such an event.
I wish now I had had the wisdom to be impressed earlier with the necessity of making provisions against reverses. I hope they will never come to you but if they do I am sure you will meet them bravely. We are all well here but Willie, he has got quite a cold. Mama called in the Doctor today and we hope he will soon be over it. Hoping both you girls continue well and with much love I am your affectionate father, Robert Watt.

Following is a biographical note published in 1946:

Robert Watt, mining operator and financier, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, Mar. 10, 1832, son of James and Janet (McAlpin) Watt. His father was an engineer. He received his early education at schools in his native country. Coming to the United States at the age of twenty, he joined an elder brother William, in mining operations in Grass Valley, Calif. They owned the Massachusetts Hill mine and were interested in several other successful mines. He retired from active management of mining operations in 1867, in which year he was elected state controller. Upon the expiration of his term in 1872 he removed to San Rafael, Calif., where he became interested in many enterprises. He was a partner in Langley & Michaels, wholesale druggists, and when the firm was incorporated he became a vice-president. He was an incorporator and director of the Presidio & Ferries Railroad Co., which operated a cable street railroad from the Presidio in San Francisco down Union Street to Columbus avenue and Montgomery street and thence to the ferry building by horse car. A member of the first state board of bank commissioners in 1880, he became a director of the Nevada Bank of San Francisco in 1890. At the time of his death he was a director of the San Francisco Savings Union, Union Trust Co. and Wells Fargo-Nevada Bank of San Francisco; and the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Stockton. He was a member of the executive committee of the Wells Fargo-Nevada Bank and vice-president of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad Co., which was absorbed later by the Santa Fe. In 1886 he became a director of the Pacific Gas Improvement Co. and was its vice-president at the time of its consolidation with the San Francisco Gas & Electric Co. in 1903. He was a Mason and member of the Pacific Union Club of San Francisco. In religion he was a Presbyterian and in politics a Democrat. Personally he was a man of sterling and balanced character, honest, fearless, and upright, fair and considerable in all his dealings, with an exceptional sense of justice and a fine sense of humor.

Following an obituary found at the California State Library in Sacramento:

Robert Watt, one of the most capable and popular pioneer businessmen of California, died suddenly last evening at his home, 2016 California Street. Heart disease is attributed as the immediate cause of death, although an injury which he sustained in a collision between his carriage and a Sutter street car last February is believed to have undermined his health and hastened the end. Watt was stricken yesterday morning and passed away at 5 p.m., surrounded by his wife, two daughters, son and son-in-law.
Dr. William Watt Kerr, a nephew, attended the capitalist in his dying moments. Watt was born in Scotland 75 years ago and came to California in 1852. He settled in Nevada county and engaged in mining, laying the foundation of his large fortune. After following this occupation for many years he came to San Francisco, where for the last quarter of a century he had taken an active interest in business affairs. Watt served the state as bank commissioner and also held the office of state controller. He retired from political life in the early seventies, much to the disappointment of his friends who were anxious that he should continue as a public servant. He was actively engaged in business up to the time he was fatally stricken. He was president of the wholesale drug firm of Langley & Michaels, vice-president and director of the Union Trust company, vice-president and director of the San Francisco Savings Union and a director of the Wells-Fargo Nevada National Bank and the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company and the Marin County Water Works. He owned much valuable property throughout the city and state and leaves a great fortune. Watt is survived by his widow, two daughters, Mrs. D.W. Campbell and Mrs. C.O.G. Miller of this city, and a son, William Watt of Napa county. The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 o'clock from his late residence. The obsequies will be simple in character, in accordance with the wish expressed by Watt.

Following is a biographical sketch printed in the 'History of the San Francisco Bay Region', published in 1924 by The American Historical Society.

Robert Watt was a California pioneer who possessed in marked degree the sterling character, sturdy independence, resourcefulness and mature judgement of the true Scotsman, and he was a pioneer of pioneers of mining
operators in California. He became a man of prominence and influence in public affairs, and did much to advance the civic and material development and prosperity of the city and state of his adoption. Mr. Watt was born in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, in March, 1832, and was an ambitious youth of nineteen years when he became a resident of California, in 1852. His parents, James and Janet (McAlpin) Watt, passed their entire lives in Scotland, representatives of sterling old families of substantial standing in Scotland for many generations. The subject of this memoir was the youngest member of a fine family of eleven children (tenth of eleven, in fact), of whom all attained to adult age except George, who died in infancy. All are now deceased, namely: James, John, David, Robert, Euphemia, Jane, Grace, Janet and William. Of the sons, William, David and Robert came to California and engaged in gold mining for many years. Robert Watt acquired his early education in the excellent schools of his native land, and after coming to San Francisco he attended night school, in which he took a course in mining engineering, he having become skilled in his profession and having been in the early days the only representative thereof here available for practical service. He became actively concerned with mining operations in Grass Valley, Nevada County, and he was prominently identified with mining activities at Massachusetts Hill and the Eureka Mine also. He continued his professional activities in connection with the mines until 1869, when he was elected State Controller of California, under the administration of Governor Haight. He retained his office four years and made therein a record of careful and efficient service. He held for many years the office of state bank commissioner, and as an engineer and public-spirited citizen he was largely instrumental in promoting and constructing the first cable-operated street-car line in San Francisco, besides which he was a zealous worker in connection with securing railroad rights-of-way here. In this connection it is well worthy of mention that this work done by Mr. Watt contributed in large measure to the success of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company. This company was organized for the purpose of providing a competing railroad into San Francisco, as the only transcontinental line entering the city was the Southern Pacific. Also the entire San Joaquin Valley, comprising one of the most productive areas in the world, was entirely at the mercy of the one railroad, and an insistent demand had arisen for competition to correct the various evils the agricultural population had suffered. One of the most important, if not the most important, factor to the successful development of the road was in securing proper rights-of-way. In numberless instances the land owners who would be largely benefited by the road were the very ones who held up or tried to hold up the entire matter by either refusing to part with any portion of their land for a right-of-way or by placing such an exorbitant figure on the land desired that it could not be paid. It was here that Mr. Watt demonstrated his value to the undertaking. Putting aside his individual interests, he visited these districts and personally interviewed these men who were holding out. He was fair and just in his views and could see the viewpoint of the other side, and this was so evident that he inspired confidence in the land owners. The result was that arrangements were made fair to both sides and the troubles regarding rights-of-way were amicably adjusted. The value of this to the undertaking is almost beyond computation. Mr. Watt was vice-president of the Union Trust Company, the Wells Fargo Nevada Bank and the Mercantile Trust Company. He continued these important banking connections until the time of his death, and likewise his interest in the wholesale drug house of Langley & Michaels, the oldest establishment of its kind in San Francisco.
He held membership in the Bohemian, University and Pacific Union clubs, and in religion he retained the ancestral faith, that of the Presbyterian Church. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including bodies of its Scottish Rite. The death of this honored pioneer occurred on the 11th of July, 1907. In San Francisco, on the 12th of November, 1863, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Watt and Elizabeth Dewey Leighton, a daughter of James Frederick Eaton, of Hanover, New Hampshire, and Mary Abigail Merrill. Immediately after their marriage they established their home in Grass Valley, California, remaining there four years and then removing to Sacramento, where they resided during his term of office. The next move was to San Rafael, Marin County, California, where they established one of the most beautiful homes in the county, on the site of which now stands the Hotel Rafael. Of the children the eldest is Elizabeth, who is the wife of Donald Yorke Campbell, of this city; Janet McAlpin is the wife of C.O.G. Miller, of San Francisco; William is a representative agriculturist in Napa County; and James and Frederick are deceased.