Life

The son of Robert and Grizell Scott, he was born on 13 November 1777 at Lanark

Lanark

Lanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8,253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade"....

, where his father was a skinner. He attended the grammar school at Musselburgh

Musselburgh

Musselburgh is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, six miles east of Edinburgh city centre.-History:...

, and at the age of ten was articled to Andrew Robertson, an engraver at Edinburgh; there he also worked in the Trustees' Academy. Among his pupils were John Burnet

John Burnet (painter)

John Burnet was a Scottish engraver and painter.-Life:Son of the Surveyor-General of Excise of Scotland, Burnet was born either in Edinburgh in 1781 or in Fisherrow in 1784...

, John Horsburgh

John Horsburgh

-Life:Born at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, he was left an orphan early, and studied drawing at the Trustees' Academy. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to Robert Scott the engraver, and worked under him for some years....

, and James Stewart

James Stewart (engraver)

-Life:He was born at Edinburgh in October or November 1791. He was articled to Robert Scott the engraver, and had as his helpful fellow pupil John Burnet. He also studied drawing in the Trustees' Academy. On the foundation of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1826 he became an original member.In 1830...

. He died early in 1841.

Works

Scott first became known for some plates in James Anderson of Hermiston

James Anderson of Hermiston

James Anderson FRSE FSA was a Scottish agriculturist, journalist and economist. A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Anderson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment...

's The Bee for 1793 and 1794, and a set of Views of Seats and Scenery chiefly in the Environs of Edinburgh, from drawings by Alexander Carse and Andrew Wilson

Andrew Wilson (artist)

Andrew Wilson was a Scottish landscape-painter.-Life:Born in Edinburgh, he came of an old Jacobite family. His father was Archibald Wilson, and his mother Elizabeth Shields. When quite young he began to study art under Alexander Nasmyth, and then, at the age of seventeen, went to London, where he...

, published in 1795 and 1796. He made the most of his abilities, and was known in his day for his small book illustrations; he carried on a manufactory in Parliament Stairs, Edinburgh, employing many assistants.

Scott's most significant work was in landscape. He engraved the illustrations to George Barry

George Barry (author)

George Barry was a Scottish minister, the author of a History of the Orkney Islands.-Life:Barry was a native of Berwickshire. He studied at the University of Edinburgh...

's History of the Orkney Islands, 1805, and to Scenery of Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, 1808; he also for many years contributed plates to the Scots Magazine, and put in the landscape backgrounds of some of those for John Bell

John Bell (publisher)

John Bell was an English publisher. The Dictionary of National Biography has Charles Knight calling Bell a "mischievous spirit, the very Puck of booksellers." His 109-volume, literature-for-the-masses Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill, which rivaled Samuel Johnson's Lives...

's Poets of Great Britain".

He was employed by Henry Mozley, publisher at Gainsborough

Gainsborough

-Places:* Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England** Gainsborough Trinity F.C.** Gainsborough Riverside Festival** Gainsborough * Gainsborough, Saskatchewan, Canada* Gainsborough, New South Wales, Australia* Gainsborough, Ipswich, England...

 (the father of Thomas Mozley

Thomas Mozley

Thomas Mozley , was an English clergyman and writer associated with the Oxford Movement.Mozley was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the son of a bookseller and publisher. His brother, James Bowling Mozley, would become known for his own theological works...

 and James Bowling Mozley

James Bowling Mozley

James Bowling Mozley was an English theologian.He was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the younger brother of Thomas Mozley, and was educated at Oueen Elizabeth's Grammar School and later Oriel College, Oxford.Mozley was elected to a fellowship at Magdalen in 1840...

), for whose edition of James Thomson's Seasons (1804), he engraved four plates after John Burnet. Scott's last work was a set of twenty views of ‘Scenery of Edinburgh and Midlothian,’ 1838, from drawings by his son, William Bell Scott.

Family

By his wife Ross Bell, to whom he was married in 1800, he had two sons, David Scott

David Scott (painter)

David Scott was a Scottish historical painter.-Life:The brother of William Bell Scott, he was born at Edinburgh, where he attended the Royal High School, and studied art under his father, Robert Scott, the engraver....

 and William Bell Scott

William Bell Scott

William Bell Scott was a Scottish poet and artist.-Life:The son of Robert Scott , the engraver, and brother of David Scott, the painter, he was born in Edinburgh. While a young man he studied art and assisted his father, and he published verses in the Scottish magazines...

.