Robert Watt

Robert Watt was an Edinburgh wine merchant who became involved in a reform movement during a tense political moment in Britain, when fears of revolution ran high after events in France. He is chiefly remembered for his role in what later became known as the "Pike Plot," an alleged plan connected with seizing Edinburgh Castle and sparking wider unrest.

In 1794 he was tried for high treason in Edinburgh and executed that October. Much of what is known about him today comes from period publications, including The declaration and confession of Robert Watt and later accounts of his life and trial.

Because surviving information is tied so closely to legal and polemical documents, modern readers often encounter him less as a literary author in the usual sense and more as a historical figure whose own printed confession became part of the record of the age.