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Author: Scott, John Welwood

Biography:

SCOTT, John Welwood (1772?-1842: Hollis)

For as prominent and productive a citizen as he was, there are surprisingly few reliable records. He was a printer and publisher and later (concurrently) a Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia for the whole of his working career, although his origins might have been in Nova Scotia. The names of his parents and his birthplace have not been discovered. His name first appears as a printer in partnership in Wiscasset PA in 1798; by 1804 he was publishing both secular and religious titles in his own right in Philadelphia as John W. Smith. He wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1803 as "a private Citizen just embarking on the sea of life," seeking his support for a work he proposed to publish. (Oddly, he gave his name as John Washington Smith.) The work he had in mind was probably The Philadelphia Repository and Weekly Register. He went on to publish a few other periodicals, notably the Religious Remembrancer, the first religious weekly newspaper in America, which he edited himself for ten years 1813-23 until it merged with another paper. His best known work is his Historical Sketch of the Pine Street or Third Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia (1837). The name of his wife is not recorded, although he must have married, since he left at least one son to carry on the firm and died at the home of his son-in-law, the Rev. Bingham Carroll, in Waynesburg PA. (WorldCat; "To Thomas Jefferson from John Washington Scott, 31 January 1803," Founders Online 3 Sept. 2020; The Philadelphian 19 Jan. 1832; John Thomas Scharf et al., History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 [1884] 3: 1958; Watchman of the South 14 Apr. 1842)

 

Other Names:

  • John W. Scott
  • Welwood
 

Books written (2):

Philadelphia: [no publisher], 1809
Philadelphia: George, Latimer, and Co., 1834