Joseph Nicol Scott M.D. (1703?–1769) was an English physician, dissenting minister and writer.

Life

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He was the eldest son of Thomas Scott, an Independent minister at Hitchin and then Norwich, the half-brother of Daniel Scott, and was born about 1703 at Hitchin in Hertfordshire; Thomas Scott was his brother, and Elizabeth Scott his sister.[1] He acted as his father's assistant at the Old Meeting in Norwich from about 1725, but his religious views became Arian, and he was dismissed in 1737 or 1738.[2]

Scott was then established by his Norwich friends in a Sunday lectureship at the French church, St Mary the Less. At first he drew good audiences, including members of the Church of England, but his lectures were discontinued by 1743.[2]

Scott studied medicine at Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. in 1744. For some years he practised in Norwich. John Reynolds, an admirer, left him an estate at Felsted in Essex; here he ended his days, dying on 23 December 1769. A monument to his memory was in the Old Meeting, Norwich. The Gracious Warning, a monody on his death, by George Wright, was published in 1774.[1][2]

Works

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Scott published:[2]

  • Sermons … in defence of all Religion … Natural or Revealed, 1743, 2 vols. One is on "the Mahometan Revelation considered", and others affirm annihilationism, anticipating the position of Samuel Bourn (1714–1796).
  • An Essay towards a Translation of Homer's Works in Blank Verse, with Notes, 1755, a version of thirteen passages from the Iliad.

He also revised the etymologies from classic and oriental languages for an issue (1755, folio) of the English Dictionary by Nathan Bailey.[2]

Family

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Scott's widow, Martha Bell, died at Aylsham, Norfolk, in 1799, aged 87.[1]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Copson, S. L. "Scott, Joseph Nicol". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24901. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c d e Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Scott, Joseph Nicoll" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Attribution

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainLee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Scott, Joseph Nicoll". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.