[1] In 1774, he was appointed the Recorder of New York City under Mayor David Mathews, and was the last to serve in this role under the English Crown.

In 1779, his properties, including his "Rose Hill" estate (which is now occupied by Fordham University), were seized by the New York State Legislature.

The real estate was escheated to the State because of technical problems of the "will", however, the personal property passed to Watts who used it to found the Orphan Asylum.

His grandson would later write that "Watts was a monument of affliction, in that he had seen his wife, six handsome, gifted, and gallant sons, and four daughters precede him to the grave.

"[5] The children included:[11] John Watts died at his longtime home, 3 Broadway in New York City, on September 3, 1836.

[1] In 1839, his family's Rose Hill estate and manor house were purchased by the Catholic Church to establish St. John's College.

Through his daughter Mary, he was the grandfather of John Watts de Peyster (1821–1907),[13] a New York City author and philanthropist who married Estelle Livingston (1819–1898) in 1841.