A native of the town of Forfar in Scotland, Watt was accused of embezzling funds from the London merchants where he worked as a clerk. The firm offered a fifty pound reward for his capture, describing him as 'about five feet nine inches high, stoops a little, very dark complexion... strong black beard, aged 22 but looks older' (The Times 12 March 1828. 2G).
In May 1828, Watt was sentenced to fourteen years transportation, arriving in Sydney on the Marquis of Hastings later that year. Watt quickly impressed some influential officers with his abilities and received a Ticket of Leave in April 1832, after which he began working as a journalist for the Sydney Gazette. Thereafter, Watt was heavily involved in the highly politicised world of the colonial press. He accepted an invitation from E. S. Hall to become editor of the Monitor in December 1833, but chose to return to the Sydney Gazette in March 1834.
Watt was assumed to be the author (under the pen name 'Humanitas') of a pamphlet essay published by the Gazette office entitled Party Politics Exposed (1834), which was highly critical of the treatment of assigned convicts by prominent landowners. From that point on, Watt was pursued with a vengeance by the Tory press. One of the landowners whom Watt had implicated as a virtual slave-owner, James Mudie, even published the exaggerated claim that 'through his secret connection with functionaries of the government, Watt actually ruled the colony' (The Felonry of New South Wales, 1837). It is more likely Watt served as a scapegoat for the conservative press.
In late 1835, after facing trumped-up charges before the bench of magistrates in Sydney, Watt's Ticket of Leave was transferred to Port Macquarie.
On 9 February 1836, Watt married Ann Howe, proprietor of the Sydney Gazette, at St Thomas's Church of England, Port Macquarie. Like Ann Howe's previous husband, Robert Howe, Watt died by drowning. His death occurred at Port Macquarie in January 1837.
