Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/84

 Tipu Sultan, and was present at the capture of Seringapatam. In the following year ill health compelled him to leave India, but the Indiaman in which he took his passage was captured by a French privateer in the English Channel, and it was some weeks before he was exchanged. In 1801 he was appointed colonel by brevet, in 1802 inspecting officer of the Edinburgh recruiting district, in 1803 deputy inspector-general of the recruiting service in North Britain, and in 1804 brigadier-general. He attained the rank of major-general on 25 April 1808, and was nominated lieutenant-general on 4 June 1813. Until he retired at the close of fifty-two years' service he was never unemployed or on half-pay. He received the rank of general on 22 July 1830. After his retirement he resided chiefly at Malleny, and was a deputy-lieutenant for Midlothian. There he died, unmarried, on 29 April 1842, and was succeeded by his nephew, Carteret George Scott.

 SCOTT, THOMAS (1808–1878), freethinker, was born on 28 April 1808. He was brought up in France as a Roman catholic, and became a page at the court of Charles X. Having an independent fortune, he travelled widely, and spent some time among North American Indians. About 1856 he grew dissatisfied with Christianity, and in 1862 he started issuing tracts advocating ‘free enquiry and the free expression of opinion.’ These were printed at his own expense, and given away mostly to the clergy and cultured classes. Between 1862 and 1877 he issued, first from Ramsgate, afterwards from Norwood, upwards of two hundred separate pamphlets and books, which were ultimately collected in sixteen volumes. Among the writers who contributed to the series were F. W. Newman, William Rathbone Greg [q. v.], Dr. Willis, Bishop Hinds, Rev. Charles Voysey, M. D. Conway, Sir Richard Davies Hanson [q. v.], Marcus Kalisch [q. v.], John Muir [q. v.], John Addington Symonds [q. v.], Thomas Lumisden Strange [q. v.], Edward Maitland, Edward Vansittart Neale [q. v.], Charles Bray, Dr. George Gustavus Zerffi [q. v.], and R. Suffield. Scott also reprinted such works as Bentham's ‘Church of England Catechism Examined’ and Hume's ‘Dialogues on Natural Religion.’ His own contributions to the series were slight, but he suggested subjects, revised them, discussed all points raised, and made his house a salon for freethinkers. He was a competent Hebrew scholar, and saw through the press Bishop Colenso's work on the Pentateuch and Book of Joshua in the absence of the bishop from England. He also revised the work on ‘Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names,’ by Thomas Inman [q. v.] Scott put his name on ‘The English Life of Jesus,’ 1872, a work designed to do for English readers what Strauss and Renan had done for Frenchmen and Germans; but the work is said to have been written in part by the Rev. Sir George W. Cox. Scott also wrote ‘An Address to the Friends of Free Enquiry and Expression,’ 1865; ‘Questions, to which Answers are respectfully asked from the Orthodox,’ 1866; ‘A Letter to H. Alford, Dean of Canterbury,’ 1869; ‘A Challenge to the Members of the Christian Evidence Society,’ 1871; ‘The Tactics and Defeat of the Christian Evidence Society,’ 1871; ‘The Dean of Ripon on the Physical Resurrection,’ 1872; and ‘A Farewell Address,’ 1877, in which he stated his persuasion that ‘the only true orthodoxy is loyalty to reason, and the only infidelity which merits censure is disloyalty to reason.’ He died at Norwood on 30 Dec. 1878. He was married, and his widow survived him. A portrait is given in ‘Annie Besant, an Autobiography’ (p. 112).

 SCOTT, WALTER (1490?–1552), of Buccleuch and Branxholm, Scottish chieftain, born about 1490, was eldest son of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch (d. 1504). He was fourth in lineal descent from Sir Walter Scott (1426–1469), who first took the territorial designation of Buccleuch, and was the first to acquire the whole barony of Branxholm, with the castle, which remained the residence of the family for several generations. His mother, Elizabeth Ker of the Cessford family, was attacked in her residence of Catslack in Yarrow by an English force under Lord Grey de Wilton in 1548, and, with other inmates of the tower, was burnt to death.

Walter Scott was under age when he succeeded his father in 1504, and his earliest appearance in history was at the battle of Flodden, 9 Sept. 1513; on the eve of the engagement he was made a knight. In 1515 he joined the party of John Stewart, duke of Albany [q. v.], then appointed regent of Scotland, and he opposed himself to Margaret, the queen dowager; but on Albany's return