a Scottish laird, advocate, judge, politician and author. He was Director of Chancery and a Lord of Session. He was educated at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, which he appears to have entered in 1600: he describes himself in the register of 1603 as in his third year. After leaving St. Andrews he went abroad to study, and on his return was called to the bar in 1606. Scott is characterized by James Grant in Old and New Scotland as "eccentric and sarcastic". He consoled himself for his disappointment in losing office by composing "The Staggering State of Scottish Statesmen", not published until a hundred years after his death.
