James Scott R.N.

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia that anyone can edit

James Scott R.N., distinguished veteran of Napoleonic Wars, friend and political agent to Arthur Anderson, was among other things, the man who transcribed the description of the Papa Stour Sword Dance for Sir Walter Scott. James was born on the 6th of March 1785 at Melby, Sandness, the third child of the laird of Melby estate, John Scott (1760-1850) who was a friend of Scott the author. James Scott was the uncle of Dr. R.T.C Scott of Melby.

James entered the navy in 1803, serving on HMS Fisgard under Captain Mark Kerr initially, and fought under Horatio, Lord Nelson at Porto Severa in 1804 (and Trafalgar in 1805? See External Link below). He was appointed surgeon on the HMS Rose, before joining the Banterer and seeing action at the Battle of Copenhagen. This ship was wrecked in ice on the St Lawrence River in 1809, and the crew suffered greatly. On his return, he married a cousin of his, Katherine Scott of Scottshall in Scalloway, on the 28th of January 1810.

After his eventual return to England, he continued aboard the Euryalus at the Scheldt, the Centaur at the defence of Tarragona, then the Sybille and the Rivoli, until peace in 1815. At this point James Scott decided he would pursue his medical studies, and attended the University of Paris while on half-pay from the navy, graduating A.B. and M.D. before returning to sea aboard HMS Brittania. In 1826 he was appointed lecturer to the Royal Navy Hospital at Haslar at Gosport in Hampshire, and became curator of its medical museum. In 1830 he moved to the Mental Asylum there, where he "brought about many improvments". He resigned in 1838 and retired to Portsmouth. Besides his medical degrees, James Scott was a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and a member of the Société Cuviénénne of Paris. He was also Right Worshipful Master of the Lerwick Morton Lodge of Freemasons. At some point between 1838 and 1841, Scott suffered a serious accident which caused him to change his retirement plans, as by the time of 1841 Census he is resident in Edinburgh - a city where his father had taken up residence earlier, and to which James had been a regular visitor.

His first meeting with Sir Walter Scott was in May 1829. Sir Walter had met his wife Katherine at Scalloway during his tour, one of the three Scott sisters mentioned in his journal, and had heard much of the young naval hero, but it was not until some fifteen years later that the two men met. Following this meeting, which took place around the time when Scott was preparing a new expanded edition of The Pirate, the two men corresponded, with the result that James provided a transcription of an account of the Sword Dance, based on a "very old one, by Mr. Wm. Henderson Jnr. of Papa Stour." James goes on to say that although Henderson's script is not dated, it is known to have been composed around 1788.

The author of this original copy is most likely the William Henderson, born at North Haa, Papa Stour, in 1769. He was the second son of a William Henderson (b. Ollaberry 1736) and his wife Elizabeth (Sinclair) (b.1738, Dunrossness), who had settled in Papa Stour, firstly at the North Haa and subsequently at Gardie, where Henderson snr. died in 1799.