The Rev. Thomas Scott was an influential preacher

Preacher

Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 who is principally known for his best-selling work A Commentary On The Whole Bible and The Force of Truth, and as one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society.

Life

Thomas Scott was born in 1747 at Braytoft in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, the son of a grazier (cattle farmer), the tenth of thirteen children. His mother was better educated than his father and taught Thomas to read, and he went to various small local private schools before being sent at the age of ten to a school in Scorton in Richmondshire

Richmondshire

Richmondshire is a local government district of North Yorkshire, England. It covers a large northern area of the Yorkshire Dales including Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, Wensleydale and Coverdale, with the prominent Scots' Dyke and Scotch Corner along the centre. Teesdale lies to the north...

, 150 miles away from home. Returning in 1762 he was apprenticed at 15 to a surgeon in nearby Alford, but was soon dismissed for bad conduct. Returning to the family farm in disgrace, he was reduced to working as a labourer for his father, enduring this for ten years before finally leaving home in 1772 to become ordained as an Anglican priest at the age of 25. As he afterwards admitted, he went into the ministry for a comfortable career, and did not believe in most of the doctrine he was required to preach.

Scott was first a curate in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 in 1772, and was originally appointed to the adjacent parishes of Stoke Goldington

Stoke Goldington

Stoke Goldington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about four miles NNW of Newport Pagnell, on the B526, the old road to Northampton....

 and Weston Underwood. In December 1774 he married Jane Kell, housekeeper to a local family. From 1775 to 1777 Scott served as curate of nearby Ravenstone by virtue of a 'swap' with the curate there.

During this period, Scott began a friendship and correspondence with the hymnwriter John Newton

John Newton

John Henry Newton was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career on the sea at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of...

 who was curate of neighbouring Olney. This instigated the examination of his conscience and study of the scriptures that were to convert him into an evangelical Christian, a conversion he related in his spiritual autobiography The Force of Truth published in 1779.

In 1781, Scott transferred to the curacy of Olney, Newton having gone to London, and in 1785 Scott also moved to London to take up a post as a hospital chaplain at the Lock Hospital

London Lock Hospital

The London Lock Hospital was the first venereal disease clinic, being the most famous and first of the Lock Hospitals, which opened on 31 January 1747....

 for syphilis sufferers. He would walk 14 miles every Sunday, preaching and taking services at various churches as well as the hospital chapel. While in London he started publishing the Commentary On the Whole Bible that was to make his name.

His wife died in 1790, and he remarried in 1791. During his time in London, Scott was, with Newton, one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society, and its first Secretary.

In 1803, Scott left the Lock Hospital to become Rector of Aston Sandford

Aston Sandford

Aston Sandford is a small village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England, about east of Haddenham and northwest of Princes Risborough.The "Aston" part of the toponym is derived from the Old English for "Eastern Estate"...

 in Buckinghamshire where he remained until his death in 1821. He kept up his involvement with the Church Missionary Society, taking in trainee missionaries for instruction.

Publications

The Force of Truth (1779) is still available as a paperback reprint. It was one of his most widely-read works and went through twelve editions in his lifetime.

Scott's Commentary On The Whole Bible originally appeared in 174 weekly numbers starting in January 1788, and went into multiple editions. By the time of his death in 1821 nearly £200,000 worth of copies had been sold in England and America (where it was particularly popular), but Scott made only £1,000 profit from the work, having sold the copyright in around 1810.

Scott published various other religious essays, but none was as successful as his Commentary, and by 1813 he was in debt to his publishers to the tune of £1,200. He successfully persuaded relatives to buy up unsold copies of his works at a reduced price to clear the debt.

During his lifetime his Theological Works, Published at different times, and now collected into volumes (1808) were published in five volumes.

His son John Scott published in twelve volumes The Works of the Late Rev. Thomas Scott, Rector of Aston Sandford, Bucks (1823-4). These volumes included The Force of Truth, John Scott's Life of the Rev. Thomas Scott and unpublished letters and papers, but excluded the Commentary.

Descendants

Scott had two daughters and three sons, all three of whom went into the Anglican ministry.

His eldest son John Scott (1777-1834) edited and published both his father's life and his papers after his death. He became vicar of St Mary's, Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

, as did his son and grandson after him, both also called John Scott. There is a pub in Hull called "The Three John Scotts" after them.

The middle son Thomas Scott (1780-1835) became rector of Wappenham

Wappenham

Wappenham is a linear village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is south-west of Towcester, north of Syresham and north-west of Silverstone and forms part of the district of South Northamptonshire...

 in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

 (succeeded by his son, another Thomas Scott), and was the father of the architect George Gilbert Scott

George Gilbert Scott

Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...

, some of whose early works are to be found in Wappenham. A 20th century descendant of this Thomas Scott was the radio comedian Richard Murdoch

Richard Murdoch

Richard Bernard Murdoch was a British comedic radio, film and television performer.Richard Bernard Murdoch attended Charterhouse School. He then appeared in Footlights whilst a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge...

.

The third son was Revd. Benjamin Scott (1788-1830).