Early Life

James Watt was born on the 19th of January, 1736 in Greenock, Scotland. His father was a shipwright and contractor, and mother had come from a distinguished family, and was well educated. Watt was brought up as a strong Presbyterian.

Watt was mostly home schooled by his mother, in which he showed a strong liking to mathematics and Greek legends and folklore. At the age of 17, his mother died, and his father was deathly ill, so Watt left home and traveled to London for a year to study instrument making.

Upon returning to Greenock, Watt wanted to start his own his own instrument making business, but the Glasgow Guild of Hammermen, upon seeing that Watt had not completed the seven required years as an apprentice, blocked his application, despite the opportunity for to have the only mathematics backed instrument supplier in Scotland.

Watt was eventually rescued from his denial by professors at the university of Glasgow, who offered Watt a chance to build and run a small workshop in the university. Watt accepted, and along with one of the professors, chemist Joseph Black, opened the workshop in 1758.

Watt eventually married his cousin Margaret Miller in 1764, and had five children between them, with only two surviving into adulthood. Margaret died in childbirth in 1772, and Watt remarried five years later to Ann McGregor, who ended up surviving Watt.