HistoricaLeigh: Coffe and Crackers —Elimentary Dr Watson

So who was William Douglas Watson? Have you ever been to Dublin and sat in the palatial Bewleys Coffee Lounge in Grafton Street? Well Dr Watson’s mother, Isabella Bewley, was the granddaughter of Samuel Bewley, who with his son, Charles, was the founder of Bewley’s and the first to import tea to Ireland.

From its origins in the tea trade the Bewley’s business expanded into coffee importation, roasting and distribution and the operation of coffee shops, most notably the legendary Grafton Street Café, which was opened in 1927.

Dr Watson’s maternal grandmother was Dorothy Jacob, also Irish, and a cousin of William Beale Jacob, who in 1851, with his brother, Robert, started the Jacob’s Biscuit business. Both the Bewley and the Jacob families were Quakers.  

So next time you take the cheese platter with a Jacob’s cracker with your post prandial coffee in Leigh you are carrying on a local connection.