Admiral Sir James Scott, KCB (18 June 1790 – 2 March 1872), was a British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

officer. He served in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, and the First Opium War.

Early career

Scott was born in London, the son of Thomas Scott of

Glenluce Glenluce ( gd, Clachan Ghlinn Lus) is a small village in the parish of Old Luce in Wigtownshire, Scotland. It contains a village shop,a caravan park and a town hall, as well as the parish church. Location Glenluce on the A75 road between Stranr ...

, Wigtownshire, Scotland.Laughton (1897) He joined the Navy in August 1803 as a first-class volunteer on board the frigate , under the command of Captain

George Cockburn Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, (22 April 1772 – 19 August 1853) was a British Royal Navy officer. As a captain he was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars an ...

. After taking the British

Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

Anthony Merry Anthony Merry (2 August 1756 – 14 June 1835) was a British diplomat. Biography The son of a London wine merchant, Anthony Merry served in various diplomatic posts in Europe between 1783 and 1803, holding mostly consular positions. In 1803 he ...

and his suite, to the United States, ''Phaeton'' sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, for operations against the French on the Isle de France. Scott was rated as a midshipman from September 1804. He returned to England in January 1806 with Captain Cockburn in the frigate , with

Marquess Wellesley A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

aboard, returning from his time as Governor-General in India.O'Byrne (1849), pp. 1042–1043. In February 1806 Scott joined the frigate ''Blanche'', under Captain Thomas Lavie, and was present, on 19 July, at the capture of the off the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. He rejoined Captain Cockburn in September to serve aboard , cruising among the Western Islands and off

Rochefort Rochefort () may refer to: Places France * Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department ** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard * Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department * Rochefort-du-Gard, in the Ga ...

. From July 1807 to April 1808 he served aboard the

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...

, commanded by Captain Sir Richard King off Ferrol. He then rejoined Cockburn again to serve as

master's mate Master's mate is an obsolete rating which was used by the Royal Navy, United States Navy and merchant services in both countries for a senior petty officer who assisted the master. Master's mates evolved into the modern rank of Sub-Lieutenant in t ...

aboard , which sailed to the Caribbean in late 1808, and took part in the reduction of Martinique in early 1809, during which Scott was slightly wounded. He returned to England with Cockburn in carrying the captive governor and garrison. Scott then took part in the

Walcheren Campaign The Walcheren Campaign ( ) was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chath ...

, commanding a gun-boat during the attack upon

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, and for his conduct he received a letter of thanks from Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, and on 16 November 1809 was appointed

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

aboard the sloop , Captain George Hewson. Scott was in her when she was wrecked off the mouth of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

on 24 May 1810. In July he was appointed to the on the Lisbon station, and in October joined the

ship sloop In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

serving under Captain John Smith Cowan stationed off Lisbon, at the defence of Cádiz, and in the Mediterranean, and under Captain Clement Sneyd on the west coast of Africa until April 1812.

American War

Scott rejoined his former captain, now Commodore Cockburn, in at Cádiz. In August 1812 Cockburn was promoted to rear-admiral and Scott followed him into his flagship , which in November sailed to the coast of North America to take part in the

. On 3 April 1813, Scott commanded one of ''Marlborough''s boats as part of squadron, under the command of Lieutenant James Polkinghorne, which pushed 15 miles up the

Rappahannock River The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 It traverses the entir ...

and captured four schooners. On 22 June 1813, Scott had charge of the ''Marlborough''s launch, during the failed attack on Craney Island; four days later he assisted at the capture of

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

. In July, now serving aboard , he commanded her launch at the capture of

Ocracoke Island Ocracoke
, from the North Carolina Collection website at the

on the coast of North Carolina, and at the capture of the privateers and ''Atlas''. In 1814, now serving as

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

of , Scott took part in the storming two forts on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, in the destruction of Commodore

Joshua Barney Joshua Barney (6 July 1759 – 1 December 1818) was an American Navy officer who served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War and as a captain in the French Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. He later achieved the rank o ...

Chesapeake Bay Flotilla The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla was a motley collection of barges and gunboats that the United States assembled under the command of Joshua Barney, an 1812 privateer captain, to stall British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay which came to be known as ...

on the

Patuxent River The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast ...

, and served on shore as aide-de-camp to Rear Admiral Cockburn during the

battle of Bladensburg The Battle of Bladensburg was a battle of the Chesapeake campaign of the War of 1812, fought on 24 August 1814 at Bladensburg, Maryland, northeast of Washington, D.C. Called "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms," a British for ...

, the

burning of Washington The Burning of Washington was a British invasion of Washington City (now Washington, D.C.), the capital of the United States, during the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812. It is the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a ...

, and at the failed attack on Baltimore.

Commander and later career

On 19 October 1814 Scott was promoted to commander, but received no ship until 4 May 1824 when he was appointed to the

bomb vessel A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons (long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounted ...

''Meteor'' to take part in the demonstration before Algiers made by Vice-Admiral Sir Harry Burrard-Neale. Subsequently, on 5 November, he took command of the

brig-sloop In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

, serving at

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

until 1827. He was promoted to

post-captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain ...

on 8 January 1828, and published his autobiography ''Recollections of a Naval Life'' in 1834. He then served aboard as

flag captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

to Admiral Sir George Cockburn on the North America and West Indies Stationfrom June 1834 until 1836, then to Admiral Charles Ross (Royal Navy officer), Charles Ross on the Pacific Station from August 1837 until October 1839. On 31 October 1839 he was appointed to command of the sixth-rate Atholl-class corvette, post ship off South America, and then on the East Indies and China Station, serving in the Second Opium War. He saw action in Second Battle of Chuenpi on 7 January 1841 in ''Samarang'', having the frigate , and the sloops and under his command during the attack on the fort at Tycocktow. On 26 February he took part in the Battle of the Bogue. Before the first Battle of Canton (March 1841), investment of Canton, he moved temporarily into the East India Company's iron-hulled steamer Nemesis (1839), ''Nemesis'', commanded by Captain William Hutcheon Hall, to force a Broadway expedition, passage up the Broadway river between Macao and Whampoa anchorage, Whampoa. During the advance, on 13 to 15 March, aided by the boats of his own ship, he destroyed as many as five forts, one battery, two military stations, and nine Junk (ship), war-junks, collectively armed with 115 guns and 8 gingalls. For his services he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 29 June 1841. He left ''Samarang'' at the end of 1841, and saw no further service at sea. Scott was promoted to rear admiral on 26 December 1854, then to vice admiral on 4 June 1861. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 10 November 1862. Scott was finally promoted to Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral on 20 February 1865, but was then, against his own wishes, placed on the retired list under the terms of the Order in Council of 24 March 1866. Admiral Scott died at Cheltenham on 2 March 1872.

Personal life

On 3 May 1819 he married Caroline Ann, only child of Richard Donovan, of Tibberton Court, Gloucestershire. They had one son. It is interesting to note that the memorial tablet in St Paul's Cathedral, erected by his shipmates, lists his birthdate as June 18th 1787."Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London), Sinclair, W. p. 455: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909

Notes

References

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External links

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Vol. 1

Vol. 2

Vol. 3
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, James 1790 births 1872 deaths Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Military personnel from London Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the First Opium War Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Royal Navy personnel of the War of 1812