Family and Education

b. by 1484, 1st s. of Sir William Scott of Scot’s Hall by Sybil, da. of Sir Thomas Lewknor of Trotton, Suss. m. by 1507, Anne, da. of Reginald Pympe of Nettlestead, nr. Maidstone, Kent, 5s. 6da. Kntd. 1511; suc. fa. 24 Aug. 1524.2

Offices Held

Commr. subsidy, Suss. 1512, 1514, 1515, Kent 1523, 1524; sheriff, Kent 1527-8; j.p. 1531-d.; knight of the body by 1533.3

Biography

John Scott’s grandfather and father were both prominent figures at court, in the Cinque Ports and at Calais, and both had sat in Parliament for Kent. To his advantages of birth Scott could add the lustre of his part in the expedition led by his uncle Sir Edward Poynings to the Netherlands in 1511, which gained him a knighthood from Prince Charles, the future Emperor, subsequently transmuted by Henry VIII into a knighthood of the body. His return to the Parliament of the following year for Romney, one of the two Cinque Ports nearest to his family’s chief residence, doubtless owed something to Poynings, who as lord warden made the return and himself sat in this Parliament, probably for Kent. What is less clear is why, unlike his fellow-Member, the townsman Clement Baker, Scott was not re-elected for Romney to the next Parliament, in accordance with the King’s request for the return of the previous Members. He was presumably in England at the time, for the campaign of 1514, in which he led an 80-strong following, had ended with a peace treaty in August. A possible explanation is that he was re-elected, but not for Romney. Although both knighthoods of the shire were probably bespoke, one for the Speaker-designate Thomas Neville and the other for Poynings himself, Scott could have been nominated either for Hythe, the other port nearest his home, or for Hastings, where the names of the Members are lost, although the previous Members for both these boroughs were available for re-election; it is perhaps a point in favour of Hastings that Scott was included in the Sussex subsidy commissions of 1514 and 1515.4

During the remainder of his comparatively short life Scott went to war again in 1523, discharged courtly duties such as attending Wolsey at the reception of Charles V, whose baggage he was responsible for transporting from Dover to Canterbury, and took his part in local administration. If he was able to obey the summons to act as servitor at Anne Boleyn’s coronation in May 1533 it was his last ceremonial occasion, for he died on the following 7 Oct. His eldest son was then 26 years old.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Romney assessment bk. 1492-1516, f. 162; Add. 34150, f. 136.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/44/102. Fam. Min. Gent. (Harl. Soc. xl), 1301-3; J. R. Scott, Mems. Scott Fam. of Scot’s Hall, 252 table; Hall, Chron. 524.
• 3. Statutes, iii. 83, 114, 168; LP Hen. VIII, ii-iv.
• 4. Hall, 524.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, i, iii, vi; Chron. Calais (Cam. Soc. xxxv), 15, 16, 34; C142/55/107.