Rev. James Scott

The son of a Yorkshire clergyman, James Scott attended St. Catherine's College Cambridge (B.A. from Trinity, 1757, Fellow 1758, M.A. 1760, B.D. 1768, D.D. 1775); he won the Seatonian prize for poetry in 1760, 1761, and 1762. Scott was a lecturer at St John's, Leeds (1758-69), curate at Edmunton (1760-61), and rector of Simonburn, Northumberland (1771-91); he edited The Scrutator (1764) and in the Public Advertiser contributed political diatribes under the pseudonym "Anti-Sejanus." After Scott was given the Simonbourn (said to be worth £5000 p.a.) by the libertine Lord Sandwich, he engaged in a legal battle over tithes and was forced to flee when his parishioners attempted to murder him.

TEXT RECORDS:

1760Heaven: a Vision.
1761A Spousal Hymn, or an Address to his Majesty on his Marriage.
1761On Despair.
1761On Pleasure.
1761On Sleep.
1761To Friendship.
1761To Wisdom.
1762An Hymn to Repentance.
1763The Redemption: a Monody.
1763To the Right Honourable the Earl of Bute.
1767The Vanity of Human Life, a Monody.

PUBLICATIONS:

Heaven, a vision. 1760.
Odes on several subjects. 1761.
Purity of heart, a moral epistle. 1761.
A spousal hymn, or an address to his Majesty. 1761.
An hymn to repentance. 1762.
Every man the architect of his own fortune: or the art of rising in the church: a satire. 1763.
Redemption, a monody. 1763.
How far a state of dependence and a sense of gratitude should influence our conduct. A sermon. 1764.
The perils of poetry, an epistle to a friend. 1766.
A farewell sermon preached at Trinity Church in Leeds. 1769.
A sermon preached at the visitation held at Wakefield. 1769?
A sermon preached at Huntington. 1770.
Bethesda; or, the house of mercy. A sermon. 1777.
A sermon preached at York ... for the benefit of the lunatic assylum. 1780.
A sermon preached at York. 1781.
A sermon [on] the day appointed for a general fast. 1793.
Equality considered and recommended. A sermon. 1794.
Sermons on interesting subjects. 1816.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Bradford School
St. Catherine's College Cambridge
Trinity College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Bachelor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity
College Fellow

clergyman
editor
poet
journalist

The World
Public Advertiser

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Robert Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1748-58); Pearch, Supplement to Dodsley's Collection (1768-83); Gentleman's Magazine 53 (1783) 537, 710; Bell's Fugitive Poets (1789-97); Poetical Register for 1808-09 (1812); Nathan Drake, Essays illustrative of the Rambler (1810); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 84 (December 1814) 601-03; Annual Register for 1814 (1814) 140; obituary in Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature 10 (March 1815) 188-89; Gentleman's Magazine 86 (1816) 527-31; John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); memoir by S. Clapham in Scott, Sermons (1816); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1942); Michael F. Suarez, ed., Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1997).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. James Scott:

1.	1765  Anonymous, in "A New Ballad; entituled, A Letter from a Newmarket Jockey to his Brother at York" London Evening Post (27 August 1765).
2.	1765  Anonymous, "On St. Sepulchre's Bells ringing" London Chronicle (5 November 1765) 438.
3.	1765  Philo-Scottus, "A Psalm of David" Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (7 November 1765).
4.	1765  A. Z., "On Anti-Sejanus" Public Advertiser (26 December 1765).
5.	1765  Little Caesar, "For the Public Advertiser" Public Advertiser (11 December 1765).
6.	1766  Anonymous, "Epitaph for Anti-Sejanus" Lloyd's Evening Post (12 March 1766) 243.
7.	1766  Lucilius, "To the Author of the Perils of Poetry" St. James's Chronicle (8 March 1766).
8.	1766  Edmond Malone to his father, April 1766; Sir James Prior, Life of Edmond Malone (1860) 23.
9.	1766  Mr. Kingsley, "Elegy on the much lamented Death of Anti-Sejanus" London Evening Post (15 March 1766).
10.	1766  W. W. [William Woty?], "On reading Mr. Scott's Perils of Poetry" London Evening Post (15 March 1766).
11.	1766  Anonymous, "Perils of Poetry" Gazetteer and Daily Advertiser (26 March 1766).
12.	1766  Amiens Cantabrigiensis, "To Mr. Scott — on the Criticisms that have been published against the Perils of Poetry" St. James's Chronicle (13 March 1766).
13.	1766  Anonymous, "An Elegy to the unlamented Memory of that poor Poet, Priest, Pander, and Politician, Anti-Sejanus" Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (17 March 1766).
14.	1766  X. Y. Z., "The Perils of Poetry" Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (26 March 1766).
15.	1766  Anonymous, "A Pastoral-Elegiac Dialogue between the Gentle Shepherd and Jemmy Twitcher, on the unfortunate Death of fair Miss Amie Stamp" Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (19 May 1766).
16.	1766  Horace Walpole, 1766; in Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ed. G. F. Russell Barker (1894) 2:191.
17.	1766  W. Inkhorn, "The Perils of Poetry: an Epigram" St. James's Chronicle (6 March 1766).
18.	1766  Anonymous, "An Elegy to the unlamented Memory of that poor Poet, Priest, Pander, and Politician, Anti-Sejanus" St. James's Chronicle (15 March 1766).
19.	1770  I the Monkey, "To the Rev. Mr. Anti-Sejanus, alias the Rev. Mr. Slyboots, alias the Rev. Mr. *****, Chaplain to the pious Jemmy Twitcher" Public Advertiser (6 April 1770).
20.	1774  A. B., "Epigram" General Evening Post (20 January 1774).
21.	1778  The Devil, "A friendly Caution to a Prostitute Parson" General Advertiser (29 July 1778).
22.	1779  William Mason to Horace Walpole, 18 September 1779; Walpole, Letters, ed. Cunningham (1906) 7:252.
23.	1811  Anonymous, in Review of Samuel Clapham, Sermons, selected and abridged from minor Authors; Gentleman's Magazine 81 (October 1811) 348.
24.	1816  Anonymous, in Gentleman's Magazine 86 (December 1816) 529.
25.	1825 ca.  Joseph Cradock, in Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs (1828) 1:200-01; 4:274-76.
26.	1828  John Bowyer Nichols, in Joseph Cradock, Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs (1828) 4:229n.
27.	1848  John Forster, in Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith (1848; 1871) 2:68-71 &n.
28.	1963  Robert R. Rea, in The English Press in Politics 1760-74 (1963) 100.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. James Scott:

1.	1809  Nathan Drake, in Essays Illustrative of the Rambler (1809-10) 2:315.
2.	1814  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 84 (December 1814) 601-03.
3.	1815  John Nichols, in Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 9:125-26n.
4.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 1:509-10.