W.R. Watson is listed as the owner of Town Hall Hotel, Armstrong Street in the 1865 Ballarat Directory.

An advertisement in the Ballarat Evening Post, January 1864 read 'Town Hall Hotel, and Wine and Spirit Stores, Armstrong Street. The Cheapest House in Ballarat. Single Bottle Department. Brandy 5s-, Gin 4s, Rum 3s, Whiskey 3s. Per bottle. Every article sold as imported. W.R. Watson and Co. Proprietors'.

John Hope's research has also uncovered that Watson 'was president of the Ballarat Hospital and Benevolent Asylum in the years 1865, 1866, 1867 and 1870.'

Watson issued four penny-tokens in 1862, one of the many Victorian issuers to have tokens struck for him by Thomas Stokes that year.

References:
Ballarat and Ballarat District Directory for 1865-1866.
Advertisement, The Evening Post, 1 January 1864, p.4.
Sharples, J. (1993). 'Catalogue of Victorian Trade Tokens' in Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia, Vol.7, December, pp.17-18.
Hope, John (2005). 'Watson, W. & Co.', unpublished MSS, 1pp.

More Information