Scot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 medieval borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

s, applied to householder

Householder

A householder is a person who is the head of a household; see House.Householder is also a family name:*Alston Scott Householder, American mathematicianMathematical topics named after A.S...

s who were assessed for a tax (such as tallage

Tallage

Tallage or talliage may have signified at first any tax, but became in England and France a land use or land tenure tax. Later in England it was further limited to assessments by the crown upon cities, boroughs, and royal domains...

) paid to the borough for local or national purposes.

They were usually members of a merchant guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

.

Before the Reform Act 1832

Reform Act 1832

The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...

, those who paid scot and bore lot were often entitled to the franchise

Suffrage

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

. The expression used today originated from this time period. Members that did not pay their taxes "got off 'scot-free' ".