Name William Watts | ||
Died April 9, 1913, Torquay, United Kingdom Education The Queen's College, Oxford Books Nottinghamshire Parish Registers, Nottinghamshire Parish Registers, Somerset Parish Registers, Cornwall Parish Registers, Middlesex Parrish Registers | ||
William Phillimore Watts Phillimore; (formerly Stiff, changed by royal licence 1873) MA BCL (b. Nottingham 27 October 1853, d.Torquay 9 April 1913) was a solicitor, genealogist and publisher.
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Early life
Phillimore was the eldest son of Dr William Phillimore Phillimore (formerly Stiff) M.B. Lond., M.R.C.S. Eng., of Sneinton, Nottingham, and Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Watts of Bridgen Hall, Bridgnorth, Shropshire. He studied at The Queen's College, Oxford being awarded a 2nd in Jurisprudence in 1876.
Career
Phillimore was a solicitor. In 1897 he founded the publishing business which bears his name. From 1888 onwards, he advocated the formation of Local Record Offices, and to that end prepared bills to be put before Parliament.
Phillimore initiated the foundation of several record publication societies: British Record Society (then The Index Library) in 1887; the Scottish Record Series (afterwards Scottish Record Society) in 1896; the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire in 1897; the Canterbury and York Society in 1904, publishers of English medieval ecclesiastical records; and the Irish Record Society in 1909. He was a corresponding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Chicago Historical Society.
Personal life and death
Phillimore married Jane Graham in 1887 and they left one surviving son, Wilfred Henderson Phillimore. He died on 9 April 1913.