Talk:Richard Watts/Archive 1

Proposed merge - concensus sought.
The stub article Six Poor Travellers House adds very little to the paragraph on the same in Richard Watts. I propose:
 * Update Richard Watts to include the little extra from Six Poor Travellers
 * Change Six Poor Travellers to be a redirect to Richard Watts
 * As time permits expand Richard Watts to include the Watt's Charity, which at present is a redlink.
 * Add a redirect at Watt's Charity to Richard Watts.

Watt's Charity is a notable local charity which encompasses far more than just the Six Poor Travellers House. Not a great deal is known about Watts himself however it seems more sensible to include the charity with the man rather than vice versa. Can all interested reach concensus by the middle of next week? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 15:39, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Style
This page gave Richard Watts the style of "Sir" before I started editing it. I have not found any reference to a knighthood or baronetcy in either Hinkley or Seccombe. Watts' funerary monuments give him the style of "Esq", as do public inscriptions erected after his death (see the two quotation boxes). The will and the indenture quadripartite also use esquire rather than sir. Unless anyone can find a suitable citation for this style I will remove the references from the article in around 10 days time. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 13:05, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

Watts' or Watts's
MOS:POSS indicates that there are three approaches to the genitive of a noun ending in a voiced sibilant:


 * Add "'s" e.g. "James's house"
 * Add "'" e.g. "James' house"
 * Add either one according to pronunciation. MOS then notes "Some possessives have two possible pronunciations: James's house or James' house" which doesn't help much!

MOS continues: "Apply just one of these three practices consistently within an article. If the third practice is used and there is disagreement over the pronunciation of a possessive, the choice should be discussed and then that possessive adopted consistently in an article."

Following some recent edits we have a mix here of "Watts'" and "Watts's", and so we need to establish agreement. Most sources seem to favour "Watts'" and that is more in line with BrE pronunciation, so count options 2) and 3). Option 1) tends to sound more like Gollum on a bad day, but perhaps that is only to British ears. The charity calls itself the "Richard Watts Charity", although some 19thC writers used the other form.

Comments? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 13:21, 24 August 2012 (UTC)