Robert Eden Scott
Robert Eden Scott | |
---|---|
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Fauquier County, Virginia district | |
In office December 2, 1839 – December 4, 1842 | |
Preceded by | Elias Edmunds |
Succeeded by | William R. Smith |
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Fauquier County, Virginia district | |
In office December 1, 1845 – December 3, 1849 | |
Preceded by | Elias Edmunds |
Succeeded by | William M. Hume |
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Fauquier County, Virginia district | |
In office January 12, 1850 – June 7, 1852 | |
Preceded by | Samuel J. Tabbs |
Succeeded by | Wellington Gordon |
Personal details | |
Born | Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia | April 23, 1808
Died | May 3, 1862 Warrenton, Virginia | (aged 54)
Political party | Whig |
Children | R. Taylor Scott |
Profession | Lawyer, politician |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Robert Eden Scott (April 23, 1808 – May 3, 1862) was a prominent Virginia planter, lawyer and politician who served many terms in the Virginia General Assembly. He also represented Fauquier County at the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 and the surrounding district in the Provisional Confederate Congress, until his death at the hands of Union Army deserters while defending his farm.
Early and family life
Born in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1808 to "Judge" John Scott and his wife Elizabeth Pickett, Robert Eden Scott was the grandson of Episcopal priest Rev. John Scott, who supported independence in the American Revolutionary War. Robert E. Scott survived three wives. On March 10, 1831, he married Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Alexandria lawyer Robert L. Taylor.[1] Their son R. Taylor Scott like his father would become a Virginia lawyer and served in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Career
Scott, a prominent Whig[2] served many times as one of two delegates representing Fauquier County (part time) in the Virginia House of Delegates, winning election and re-election from 1835–1842 and again from 1845–1852.[3] He was also a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1850–1851 and the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, changing his vote between April 4 and 17th to support secession.[4] By 1860, Scott owned 34 slaves, about half children under 15 years of age.[5] Scott also represented the state in the Provisional Confederate Congress from 1861 to 1862.
The autobiography of noted abolitionist Moncure D. Conway (1904) mentions the prominent planter. Conway recalls Scott's pre-Civil War political orientation, "The Hon. Robert E. Scott charmed me by his fine personality and manners, but he was the leading Whig." Conway admired Scott for opposing the "fire eaters" as well as for publicly predicting that secession would end in ruin.[6]
Despite not personally fighting for the Confederacy, Scott was killed by Union deserters when he confronted them for abusing his land.[6][7]
His son R. Taylor Scott, likewise became a Virginia lawyer, serving in the Confederate army during the Civil War and later as Attorney General of Virginia.
References
- ^ Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, 1915, available online
- ^ Eppa Hunton Autobiography p. 14, available at https://archive.org/stream/autobiographyofe00hunt/autobiographyofe00hunt_djvu.txt
- ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 392, 396, 400, 416, 421, 425, 431, 441, 443, 449, 475
- ^ "How Virginia Convention delegates voted on secession, April 4 and April 17…" (PDF). Union or Secession. Library of Virginia. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
- ^ slave schedule in 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Southwest Revenue District, Fauquier County Virginia
- ^ a b Conway, Moncure Daniel. Autobiography: Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel Conway; Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-1-108-05060-9.
- ^ "Political Graveyard: Scott, O to R". PoliticalGraveyard.com. Lawrence Kestenbaum. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- 1808 births
- 1862 deaths
- Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States
- 19th-century American politicians
- Members of the Virginia House of Delegates
- People of Virginia in the American Civil War
- United States politicians killed during the Civil War
- People from Warrenton, Virginia
- Virginia politician stubs