Author: Scott, James
Biography:
SCOTT, James (1734-1814: ODNB)
Scott is a “prior” author who owes his place in this bibliography to the reprinting of some of his poetical work alongside post-1770 titles. He was born on 3 Mar. 1734 at Leeds and baptised on 4 Apr. at St. Peter’s, the son of Rev. James Scott, formerly Fellow of University College Oxford, and Annabella Wickham, who had married in 1730. He was educated at Bradford grammar school and entered St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1752. He migrated to Trinity College in 1756 (Scholar 1756, BA 1757, MA 1760, BD 1768, DD 1775, and Fellow from 1758). He was ordained priest in 1760, preached at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge 1760-4, and was lecturer at St. John’s, Leeds 1758-69. He was curate of Edmonton (1760-1) and of Horbury, Wakefield (1766-74), and rector of Simonburn, Northumberland (1771-91), where he proved highly unpopular by attempting to collect back tithes and his full salary. He spent almost £10,000 pursuing the case but eventually abandoned it and moved to London. He spent the summers in Yorkshire where Sir John Kaye had given him the living of Thornton. He married Ann Scott on 5 July 1771 at Simonburn. They had three children, all of whom died in infancy. He died at his residence in Somerset Street, Portland Square, Marylebone, London, on 10 Dec. 1814, and was buried at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. At Cambridge he won the Seatonian prize for poetry three times with Heaven: A Vision (1760), Purity of Heart: A Moral Epistle (1761), and A Hymn to Repentance (1762). These were later reprinted in Musae Seatonianae and Cambridge Prize Poems, listed here. He also published Odes on Several Subjects (1761); The Redemption, A Monody (1763); a satire, Every Man the Architect of his Fortune(1763) and The Perils of Poetry (1766). In prose he wrote a series of attacks on Lord Bute under the signature “Anti-Sejanus” partially reprinted in A Collection of Interesting Letters (1767). Other satirical pieces were partially reprinted in Fugitive Political Essays (1769). A posthumous collection of Sermons on Interesting Subjects (1816) was edited by Samuel Clapham who prefixed “A Sketch of the Life of the Author” (i-xliii). (ODNB 28 Oct. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 28 Oct. 2023; CCEd 28 Oct. 2023; GM Dec. 1814, 601-3, Dec. 1816, 527-31; John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century[1815], 9: 125-6, 724-9) AA
Other Names:
- Mr. Scott