Author: Scott, George
Biography:
SCOTT, George (1777-1853: ancestry.co.uk)
The son of Thomas Scott and his wife Margaret Dunn, George Scott was born at Dingleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland, and baptised on 5 Oct. 1777. He was educated at parish schools in Melrose and Galashiels before entering the University of Edinburgh. In about 1799 he became a schoolmaster in Livingstone, West Lothian. Six years later he took up the post of schoolmaster in Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire, and he remained in that position until his retirement in 1850. On 26 Apr. 1800 he married Isabella Grant; they had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Jean. The 1851 Census shows George and Isabella living in Lilliesleaf with Thomas and his two children. Scott died on 23 Feb. 1853, survived by his wife, and he was buried in the churchyard at Lilliesleaf. Heath Flowers, a collection of conventional but often quite engaging poems, is his only publication although he was said to have prepared a statistical survey of Roxburghshire which was never published. He corresponded with Walter Scott (q.v.) and a copy of Heath Flowers is at Abbotsford although the library catalogue entry notes that the pages are mostly uncut. Curiously one of George Scott’s letters to Walter Scott, dated 14 Oct. 1817, expresses a wish to become a lighthouse keeper. (ancestry.co.uk 25 Sept. 2024; Millgate; SM; Walter Riddell Carre, Border Memories [1876]) SR