Sir William Scott, 2nd Baronet of Thirlestane

Sir William Scott of Thirlestane, 2nd Baronet (11 May 1645-8 October 1725) was a Scottish lawyer, known as a neo-Latin poet.

He was the eldest son of Francis Scott, bart., of Thirlestane, Selkirkshire, and Lady Henrietta, daughter of William Kerr, 3rd Earl of Lothian, who married in 1673. He was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 25 February 1702.

On 20 May 1719 Scott executed a deed of entail of his lands of Thirlestane.

He died on 8 October 1725. He is buried in the sealed south-west section of Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh commonly called the Covenanter's Prison. His family share the vault with the Kerrs of Chatto, often referred to as Scott Kerr of Chatto.

Scott contributed to Archibald Pitcairne's Selecta Poemata (1726) some lyrics and macaronic verse; in the preface to the volume his literary merits are extolled by contemporaries.

A family tradition attributed to him the ballad, The Blythsome Wedding, which was also claimed for Francis Sempill, by James Paterson (1849). Allan MacLaine considers neither attribution of this anonymous work to have merit.

Scott married, in 1699, Elizabeth, only surviving child of Margaret Brisbane, 5th Lady Napier, and her husband, John Brisbane, son of an Edinburgh writer. After her death he married Jean, daughter of Sir John Nisbet of Dirleton, East Lothian, and widow of Sir William Scott of Harden. Francis Scott, son of the first marriage, became the sixth Lord Napier on the death of his grandmother, who was predeceased by his mother.

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

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