White House Historical Association

John Watt

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"John Watt," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/277.
Position
Gardener
Years in President's House
1853 – 1861
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Biography
John Watt was born in Scotland around 1824.1 He was hired by the Commissioner of Public Buildings in 1853, who placed him in charge of the “President’s grounds, conservatory, Lafayette Square, and the grounds south of the President’s House.”2 In 1857, Watt oversaw the construction of the White House Conservatory.3 He was well known in the world of gardening and horticulture as he presented his peas, onions, and collection of greenhouse plants at the 1857 Horticulture Exhibition and served as chairman of the Washington Horticultural Society.4 However, Watt’s time at the White House was marred by controversy. He regularly inflated the cost of his operations and over-charged the government. In 1861, the former commissioner of public buildings, William Woody, accused Watt of disloyalty to the Union cause and misusing expenses.5 A short time later, Henry Wikoff, a friend of Mary Lincoln’s, named Watt as the person who leaked a portion of President Lincoln’s annual address to Congress to the New York Herald.6 Watt left the White House in late 1861, amidst these scandals. However, the timeline is unclear about when exactly President Lincoln dismissed Watt and which incident specifically prompted it. After he left the White House, Watt spent most of 1862 in Europe studying plants for the Department of the Interior.7 When he returned in 1863, he enlisted in the Union Army.8 He continued to work as a private gardener and florist in Washington, D.C., and owned his own greenhouse.9 John married Jane Masterson, who is sometimes listed as working at the White House, in 1847.10 John Watt died in 1892 and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.11
  1.  “John Watt,” Find a Grave, accessed March 22, 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181926220/john-watt.
  2. “The Public Grounds,” The Evening Star, May 16, 1859, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/168104509/?terms="John Watt"&match=1
  3. William Seale, The President’s House, Vol. 1, 337.
  4. “Local News,” The Washington Union, June 17, 1857, https://www.newspapers.com/image/319342455/?terms="John Watt"&match=1; “Washington Horticultural Society,” The Evening Star, September 21, 1857, https://www.newspapers.com/image/145353086
  5. Justin G. Turner, Linda Levitt Turner, and Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters, 1st ed. (New York: Knopf, 1972): 102; “Loyalty of Clerks and Other Persons Employed by Government,” January 18, 1862, Report 16, House of Representative, 37th Congress, Session 2, pg. 29. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reports_of_Committees/o6EFAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
  6. “Pick Lock Journalism” The New York Tribune, February 14, 1862, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/78343481/; “Mr. Henri Wikoff…” The New York Tribune, February 15, 1862, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/78343494/; “The Chevalier Wikoff and the Hickman Kitchen Committee,” The New York Herald, March 3, 1862, https://www.newspapers.com/image/329306051/?terms=watt&match=1
  7. David P. Holloway to John Watt, March 14, 1862,  Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833 to 1916, Manuscript/Mixed Material, https://www.loc.gov/item/mal1503400/; “Returned – Mr. John Watt,” The Evening Star, September 20, 1862, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/168179350/?terms="John Watt"&match=1. 
  8. Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, 276; “John Watt,” U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, NARA, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/1258576:4654
  9. “Bouquets, Plants, and Flowers,” The Evening Star, September 14, 1863, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/168169504; “Local News,” The Evening Star, December 12, 1863, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/168206522
  10. Marta McDowell, All the Presidents' Gardens: Madison's Cabbages to Kennedy's Roses—How the White House Grounds Have Grown with America (United States: Timber Press, 2016): 259; “John Watt and Jane Masterson,” Washington, D.C., U.S., Marriage Records, 1810-1953, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/5968:5277 
  11. “John Watt,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181926220/john-watt; “Died,” The Evening Star, January 13, 1892, pg 5, https://www.newspapers.com/image/146184579.
Birthplace
Scotland
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Related Workers
Auguste Julien
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1849, circa 1861
Thomas Wall
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1851 – 1857
Charles F. Cone
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, 1853 – 1857, circa 1861 – 1862
James Stone
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1866
Patrick Higgins
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1857
George McLeod
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1865
Robert Gibbs
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1862
Patrick Corbet
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1857
Thomas Brown
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1859
John B. Gray
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1859
Thomas Dickson
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855
David Moran
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1861
Dennis Mitchell
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855
Patrick Toomey
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1858
John Bowie Mockabee
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1859
Michael Connaughton
Gardens, Grounds, and Flower Shop, circa 1855 – 1859
Jane M. Watt
Housekeeping and Laundry, Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, circa 1861 – 1862
Related Association Content
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/a-history-of-white-house-flowers-and-florists