Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/78

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

ries intended for the subversion of England' (anon.), Utrecht, 1626, 4to. This tract, relating to Gondomar's transactions in England, is reprinted in vol. v, of the 'Harleian Miscellany.'

There is in the Britwell Library a collection of twenty-four of the above tracts, including the speech to Sir Edward Cecil, to which has been prefixed the following general title: 'The Workes of the most famous and reuerend Diuine, Mr. Thomas Scot, Batcheler in Diuinitie, sometimes Preacher in Norwich. Printed at Vtrick, 1624,' 4to. No other copy of this title-page is known.

It is uncertain whether the political writer is identical with Thomas Scot or Scott (fl. 1605), poet, who described himself as a gentleman, and who wrote several poetical works. It appears from a letter addressed by Locke to Sir Dudley Carleton on 2 Feb. 1620-1 that the minister of Norwich, then suspected of being the author of 'Vox Populi,' had, in Somerset's time, been questioned about a 'book of birds' (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619-23). The poetical writer published the following pieces: 1, 'Four Paradoxes of Arte, of Lawe, of Warre, of Service [a poem]. By T. S.,' London, 1602, 8vo. 2. 'Philomythie or Philomythologie, wherein outlandish Birds, Beasts, and Fishes are taught to speak true English,' London, 1610, 8vo; 2nd edit, 'much inlarged,' London, 1616, 8vo. Some copies of the second edition are dated 1622; others 1640. On sig. Ii of the second edition is the following title : 'Certaine Pieces of this Age paraboliz'd, viz. Duellum Britannicum, Regalis Justitia Iacobi. Aquignispicium. Antidotum Cecillianum.' This portion is sometimes found separately. A transcript of it, entitled 'The Deade March,' was in 1859 in the library of Dawson Turner, and the compiler of the catalogue of his manuscripts states that the author of the poems was supposed to be a native of Lynn Regis. To 'Philomythie' there is a curious frontispiece engraved by Elstracke in which are figures of birds and "beasts; and at the top there are two half-lengths, one being of Aesop, while the other is believed by collectors to be a portrait of Scott, Of this book Collier says 'the author seems to have been so fearful lest his satire should be considered personal and individual, that ambiguity often renders him incomprehensible.' The most remarkable poem is entitled 'Regalis Justitia Jacobi,' in which Scott celebrates the impartial justice of King James in refusing to pardon Lord Sanquhar or Sanquier, for the deliberate murder of Turner, the celebrated fencer, in 1612. 3. 'The Second Part of Philomythie or Philomythologie. Containing certaine Tales of True Libertie, False Friendship. Power Vnited. Faction and Ambition,' London, 1616 and 1625, 8vo.

[Addit. MSS. 5880 f. 94, 24488 f. 138; Ashmolean MMS. 1163, art. 2; Baker MS. 32, p. 525; Bandinel's Cat. of Books, lots 1078-80, 1144, and Cat. of Tracts, lots 750, 752; Bibl. Anglo-Poetica, pp.341, 342; Brydges's Censura Lit. (1807), iii. 381, iv. 32; Cat, of MSS. in Cambridge Univ. Library, iii. 153; Collier's Bibl. Account of the Rarest Books, ii. 326; Collier's Bridgwater Catalogue, p. 278; European Mag, xv. 8 (January 1789); Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, 5th edit. ii. 69; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn) iv. 2222; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 179, 3rd ser. x. 433, 5th ser.iii. 289, 320; Diary of John Rous (Camden Soc.), p. 6; Cal. of State Papers (Dom. 1619-23), pp. 208, 218, 219, 224, 462,468; Cat. of D. Turner's MSS. pp. 183, 184; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss) i. 412.]

T. C.


SCOTT or SCOT, THOMAS (d. 1660), regicide, is said by Noble to have been the son of a brewer in London (Lives of the Regicides, ii. 169). Another authority describes him as probably descended from Thomas Scot, a Yorkshireman, who married Margaret, widow of Benedict Lee of Burston, and daughter of Robert Pakington (Lipscomb, Buckinghamshire, ii. 11). Scot was educated at Westminster school and at Cambridge (Ludlow, Memoirs, ed. 1894; Wood, Athenæ, iii. 578). On 27 June 1644 his name appears in the list of the parliamentary committee for Buckinghamshire (Husband, Ordinances of 1646, folio, p. 511). In 1645 he was returned to the Long parliament, in place of Sir Ralph Verney, for Aylesbury (Return of Members of Parliament, i. 485; Memoirs of the Verney Family, ii. 218). He was one of those members of the commons who joined the army and signed the engagement of 4 Aug. 1647 (Rushworth, vii. 755). In January 1649 Scot was appointed one of the commissioners for the trial of Charles I, signed the king's death-warrant, and was only absent twice during the trial (Nalson, Trial of Charles I). He was elected a member of each of the five councils of state elected during the Commonwealth, and in the election to the fifth was seventh on the list, obtaining 93 votes out of 114 (Commons' Journals, vii. 220).

On 1 July 1649 the council of state appointed Scot to ‘manage the intelligence both at home and abroad for the state,’ and granted him 800l. a year for that object (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p, 221). This involved the employment of spies and secret agents, both at foreign courts and among