Author: Scott, Robert
Biography:
SCOTT, Robert (b 1730: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born in Falkland, Fife, to Janet (Carmichael) and Adam Scott. That much is confirmed by Ancestry records; all other information is known only from his one book which is an autobiographical poem published when he was 70. It says that he received some education in Fife before being sent to Edinburgh to study law. He abandoned this for carpentry and moved to Glasgow, returning to Fife in 1752. He married but the name of his wife is not known. Of their seven children some may have died in infancy; the poem gives details only of a son who was pressed into the navy and predeceased his father. The family moved to Edinburgh but had financial troubles and Scott moved to London seeking work, leaving his family in Scotland. His poem gives a vivid account of his time in London and records his seeing the heads of traitors on Temple Bar soon after his first arrival. He stayed in London for ten years before returning to Scotland, but he remained a peripatetic worker, never settling in one place for long. The poem records the death of his wife but not the date. No record of his death has been located. (ancestry.co.uk 28 Sept. 2020) SR