SCOTT or SCOT, PATRICK (fl. 1620), author, followed James I from Scotland into England on his accession. In June 1618 he was engaged in the work of raising voluntary gifts for the supply of the king's exchequer by threatening divers persons with prosecutions for usury (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1618, p. 538). Six years later (August 1624) James I wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf (ib. clxxi. 37). He would appear, from the general tone of his works, to have occasionally acted as tutor to Prince Charles. In 1623 and 1625 he appears to have been in Amsterdam, and to have observed closely the life of the separatist churches there (Hanbury, Memorials, i. 473). Scot's writings are remarkable for liberality of sentiment. They are:
- ‘Omnibus et singulis affording matter profitable for all men, necessarie for every man, alluding to a father's advice or last will to his sonne,’ London, 1619; (dedicated to King James and Prince Charles). At the end are some verses, ‘ad serenissimam Magnæ Britanniæ Annam reginam defunctam.’ The work was rearranged and revised as ‘A Father's Advice or Last Will to his Son,’ London, 1620.
- ‘Calderwood's Recantation, or a Tripartite Discourse directed to such of the Ministrie and others in Scotland that refuse Conformitie to the Ordinances of the Church,’ &c., London, 1622 (epistle to the reader dated from Amsterdam, 29 Nov. 1622).
- ‘The Tillage of Light, or a True Discoverie of the Philosophical Elixir commonly called the philosopher's stone,’ London, 1623 (dedicated to John, marquis of Hamilton, ‘your devoted servant’).
- ‘Vox Vera, or observations from Amsterdam examining the late insolencies of some pseudo-puritans separatists from the church of Great Britaine,’ London, 1625.
[Authorities as in text; Scot's Works.]
SCOTT or SCOT, REGINALD or REYNOLD (1538?–1599), writer against the belief in witches, was son of Richard Scot, second son of Sir John Scot (d. 1533) of Scots Hall in Smeeth, Kent [see under Scott, Sir William (d. 1350)]. His mother was Mary, daughter of George Whetenall, sheriff of Kent in 1527. The father died before 1544, and his widow remarried Fulk Onslow, clerk of the parliament; dying on 8 Oct. 1582, she was buried in the church of Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Reginald or Reynold (as he signed his name in accordance with contemporary practice) was born about 1538. On 16 Dec. 1554 his uncle, Sir Reginald Scot, died and included him in the entail of his family estate in default of his own issue, but this disposition was without practical result. Next year, when about seventeen, he entered Hart Hall, Oxford, but left the university without a degree. His writings attest some knowledge of law, but he is not known to have joined any inn of court. Marrying in 1568, he seems to have spent the rest of his life in his native county. His time was mainly passed as an active country gentleman, managing property which he inherited from his kinsfolk about Smeeth and Brabourne, or directing the business affairs of his first cousin, Sir Thomas Scot, who proved a generous patron, and in whose house of Scots Hall he often stayed [see Scott, Sir William, (d. 1350), ad fin.] He was collector of subsidies for the lathe of Shepway in 1586 and 1587, and he was doubtless the Reginald Scot who acted in 1588 as a captain of untrained foot-soldiers at the county muster. He was returned to the parliament of 1588–9 as member for New Romney, and he was probably a justice of the peace. He describes himself as ‘esquire’ in the title-page of his ‘Discoverie,’ and is elsewhere designated ‘armiger.’ He witnessed the will of his cousin Sir Thomas on 27 Dec. 1594, and made his own will (drawing it with his own hand) on 15 Sept. 1599. He died at Smeeth on 9 Oct. following, and was doubtless buried in the church there. He married at Brabourne, on 11 Oct. 1568, Jane Cobbe of Cobbes Place, in the parish of Aldington. By her he had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Sackville Turnor of Tablehurt, Sussex. Subsequently Scot married a second wife, a widow named Alice Collyar, who had a daughter Mary by her former husband. His small properties about Brabourne, Aldington, and Romney Marsh he left to his widow. The last words of his will run: ‘Great is the trouble my poor wife hath had with me, and small is the comfort she hath received at my hands, whom if I had not matched withal I had not died worth one groat.’
Scot wrote two books, each in its own department of high practical value, and indicating in the author exceptional enlightenment. In 1574 he published his ‘Perfect Platform of a Hop-garden, and necessary instructions for the making and maintainance thereof, with Notes and Rules for Reformation of all Abuses.’ The work, which is dedicated to Serjeant William Lovelace of Bethersden, is the first practical treatise on hop culture in England; the processes are illustrated by woodcuts. Scot, according to a statement of the printer, was out of London while the work was going through the press. A second edition, ‘now newly
