Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/291

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Scott
281
Scott

conferred upon him its freedom early in 1893. He was a vice-president of the International Law Association.

At the close of 1898 he was appointed deputy judge advocate-general of the army, an ordinarily light post which the South African war rendered onerous. With other ex-judges of India he joined in a memorial advocating the separation of judicial and executive functions in India, dated 1 July 1899. He died after long illness at his residence at Norwood on 1 March 1904. He was buried in St. John's churchyard, Hampstead.

He married on 16 Feb. 1867 Edgeworth Leonora—named after Maria Edgeworth [q. v.] —daughter of Frederic Hill (1803–1896), inspector of prisons for Scotland, a brother of Sir Rowland Hill [q. v.] (cf. Frederic Hill's Autobiography, 1893). Of four sons and four daughters, Leslie Frederic, K.C., became conservative M.P. for the Exchange division of Liverpool in Dec. 1910.

A portrait by Mr. J. H. Lorimer, R.S.A., presented by the courts in Egypt, is in Lady Scott's possession, and a portrait in chalks, showing him in judge's robes in India, by his sister-in-law, Miss E. G. Hill, is in the senior common room of Pembroke College.

[Works of Lord Cromer and Lord Milner; Sir A. Colvin's Making of Modern Egypt; Scott's reports as judicial adviser from 1892 to 1898; Encycl. Brit., 11th ed., art. Egypt; Oxford Mag., 9 March 1904; Indian Mag. and Rev., April 1904; The Times, 5 March 1894, 11 May 1898, 3 March 1904, and other dates; Wigan Observer, 7 Sept. 1892; Admn. of Justice in Egypt, pamphlet by H. R. Fox Bourne, London, 1909; information kindly given by Lady Scott.]

F. H. B.


SCOTT, JOHN (1830–1903), shipbuilder and engineer, born at Greenock on 5 Sept. 1830, was eldest son in the family of five sons and six daughters of Charles Cuningham Scott of Haikshill, Largs, Ayrshire, by his wife Helen, daughter of John Rankin. His father was member of Messrs. Scott & Co., a leading firm of shipbuilders on the Clyde, which was founded by an ancestor in 1710. After education at Edinburgh Academy and Glasgow University, John served an apprenticeship to his father, and, on attaining his majority, was admitted to partnership in the firm. In 1868 he became its responsible head, in association with his brother, Robert Sinclair Scott, and directed its affairs for thirty-five years. The ships constructed in the Scott yard during his charge of it included many notable vessels for the mercantile marine as well as for the British navy; others, such as the battleships Canopus and Prince of Wales, were engined there.

Scott was closely connected with the development of the marine steam-engine. At an early date he recognised the economy likely to result from the use of higher steam-pressures, and about 1857 he built the Thetis, of 650 tons, which was fitted with a two-cylinder engine of his own design and with water-tube boilers of the Rowan type, the working-pressure being 125 lbs. per square inch. The result was satisfactory so far as economy of fuel was concerned, though internal corrosion of the tubes rendered it necessary to withdraw the boilers after a short time. A little later, with the assent of M. Dupuy de Lôme, then head of the French navy department, Scott introduced the water-tube boiler into a corvette which his firm built for the French navy — the first French warship fitted with compound engines. Similar boilers and engines were proposed by him and accepted for a corvette for the British navy, but owing to the impossibility of complying with the requirement that the tops of the boilers should be at least one foot below the load-line, the adoption of the water-tube boiler was deferred. Further pursuit of the question of higher steam-pressures brought him the acquaintance of Samson Fox [q. V. Suppl. II.], with whom he was associated for many years in the development of the corrugated flue. He became chairman of the Leeds Forge Company, and carried out in conjunction with Fox the first effective tests of the strength of circular furnaces.

Although his business claimed the greater part of his attention, Scott had several other interests. He made three unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament as conservative candidate for Greenock — in 1880, 1884, and 1885. For many years he was deputy chairman of the Greenock Harbour Trust, and for twenty-five years chairman of the local marine board. He was a lover of books and formed one of the finest private libraries in Scotland, containing some rare first editions and early manuscripts as well as literature relating to his own profession. An ardent yachtsman, he was a member of many Scottish yacht clubs, and commodore of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club.

Scott also took an active interest in the volunteer movement, and in 1859 he raised two battalions of artillery volunteers. From 1862 to 1894 he was lieutenant--