A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Scott, Edmund
SCOTT. (Lieut., 1810. f-p., 12; h-p., 32.)
Edmund Scott is son of the late Colonel Geo. Scott, R.A., by Mary, daughter of Capt. T. Reeves, R.A., who was killed in the King’s Bastion at Gibraltar, when attacked by the enemy’s blockships in 1782.
This officer entered the Navy, 9 Dec. 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hero 74, commanded by the late Lord Gardner, whom he followed, in June, 1807, and June, 1808, into the Ville de Paris 110 and Bellerophon 74. In the Hero he fought in Sir Robt. Calder’s action and in that under Sir Rich. Strachan 22 July and 4 Nov. 1805, besides witnessing the surrender, 13 March, 1806, of the Marengo 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule. Continuing attached to the Bellerophon, under the command of Capt. Sam. Warren, until the early part of 1810, he contributed in the boats of that ship to the capture, 19 June, 1809, on the coast of Finland, of three vessels, and of one of four batteries by which they had been covered, mounting 4 24-pounders and garrisoned by 103 men; as also, 7 July following, to the brilliant capture, off Percola Point, of the six Russian gun-boats mentioned in our history of the services of Capt. Chas. Allen; and to the destruction, in Aug. of the same year, of another battery on the coast of Finland, defended by a large body of troops. On all these occasions he highly distinguished himself, and in particular in the affair at Percola, where, as we learn from a testimonial written by the present Capt. John Sheridan, at the time one of the Lieutenants of the Bellerophon, “his active, cool, determined, and brave conduct obtained for him the admiration of his Captain” – by whom, as well as by his patron Lord Gardner, he appears to have been more than once most strongly recommended to the Admiralty. After serving at the siege of Cadiz in the Atlas 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral John Child Purvis, and acting (during the defence of Sicily against Murat) as First of the Bustard 16, Capt. John Duff Markland, Mr. Scott, about July, 1810, joined the Conqueror 74, Capt. Edw. Fellowes; of which ship, in compliment to the services of his father and grandfather, he had been created a Lieutenant by a commission bearing date 4 of the preceding May. He invalided home from the Mediterranean in Feb. 1811; and was afterwards, from June, 1812, until June, 1816, employed on the North American station, three years of the time as First-Lieutenant, in the Narcissus 32, Capts, John Rich. Lumley and Hon. Geo. Alfred Crofton. While in that frigate he served in her boats at the capture, 25 Nov. 1812, of the privateer Joseph and Mary of 4 guns and 73 men; and assisted, in 1813, in taking the brig-of-war Viper of 12 guns, the privateer Revenge of 12 guns and 89 men, and the town of Hampton. He shared also in the attack upon Crany Island; aided in June, 1814, in company with the Loire 38, in silencing the fire of a battery and in enforcing, off St. Leonard’s Rock, the retreat of Commodore Barney’s flotilla; took, in the course of the same month, with the boats of the Narcissus and Loire under his orders, the town of Benedict, on the river Patuxent, possession of which he retained, in face of a large body of cavalry and artillery, until he had cleared the storehouses of their contents; and commanded, 13 Oct., the boats of his own frigate and the Dispatch brig, at the cutting out, under the heavy fire of a battery and of a troop of militia, of the U.S. Revenue-schooner Eagle, at anchor within half pistol-shot of Negro Head, Long Island Sound, where 8 of her guns, in number 10, had been landed for her defence.[1] Although, on the paying off of the Narcissus, he had been three years her First-Lieutenant and had, as we have shown, served with much activity and gallantry, he was unable to procure promotion; nor has he since been more successful in his applications to the Admiralty for employment.
Lieut. Scott has had command of a packet under the control of the Post-Office.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 2466.