A Blupete Biography Page


George Scott
(?-1767).

I know not from where he came. The first solid piece of information that we have on George Scott, is, that in 1751, as a member of the 40th regiment, he was promoted to the rank of captain. By 1753, Scott was certainly in Nova Scotia, as, it was during that year that he was appointed to replace Robert Monckton as the officer in charge of Fort Lawrence. Fort Lawrence, the English fort at the Isthmus of Chignecto, stood just opposite the French fort, Fort Beausejour; they stood like two chess pieces on opposite sides of the line (the Missaguash River) which the French had drawn in 1750. Scott was to remain at Fort Lawrence, until, I believe, 1754, when a Captain Hussey took over. It was during these years, incidently, that Scott was to convince a French officer Thomas Pichon, to come over to the English and to remain at Fort Beausejour as an English spy.

As we may see from our history, Fort Beausejour was one of number of French forts in North America which were singled out, in 1755, for attack. The attack on Fort Beausejour was to be led by Colonel Monckton. Monckton was to lead 2,000 men that were principally raised at Boston, Shirley's regiment. This regiment was broken into two division; one was to be led by John Winslow and the other by George Scott, the subject of this short biographical sketch.

The object of the taking of Fort Beausejour was achieved, and achieved in a shorter period of time then what was anticipated. With 2,000 extra soldiers in Nova Scotia, all hired on and paid for, for the balance of the year, Governor Lawrence determined that he would deal with the Acadian question, and, deal with it in such a fashion as to bring the question to an end. This new objective in Acadia, struck on the spot in 1755, was to be accomplished by rounding up all of the Acadian French population, in the entire province, place them on transport ships and then to sail them down, south along the east coast, in order to spread them throughout the English colonies; and, so, it was thought, turn them into Englishmen. The soldiers at the Isthmus were divided into two groups: Winslow was sent to Minas; Scott remained in the Chignecto area. George Scott was to enthusiastically embrace the objective of rounding up and deporting the Acadians. By the autumn of 1755 this second job (the first being the taking of Fort Beausejour; the second to deport the Acadians) was done. Monckton left the area for Halifax and Scott was to remain at Fort Cumberland (as Fort Beausejour was to be renamed) as the English officer in charge.

Amherst, during The Second Siege of Louisbourg (1758), was to employ Scott, then newly appointed as a Brevet Major; Scott was praised for his daring and his energy shown during the campaign. After the fall of Louisbourg, Monckton, who spent his time at Halifax when Amherst went off to Louisbourg, was assigned the job of clearing out the French to be found up along the St. John River valley. Monckton chose Scott, who had much experience at rooting out the French inhabitants at the isthmus during 1755. In 1759, Scott was to accompany Wolfe up the St. Lawrence, and, again was assigned the role of scaring the inhabitants into submission. Scott wrote (as quoted by the DCB), of his accomplishments in the Quebec countryside, we "burnt nine hundred and ninety eight good buildings."

In 1762, Scott was part of the expeditionary forces sent to take certain of the French and Spanish possessions in the West Indies. The English met with such success in the Caribbean islands that it effectively was to bring the parties to the peace table and The Seven Years War (1756-63) to an end. In the outcome, George Scott was appointed the Governor of Dominica. He was to remain in that position until November of 1767. It was then that he challenged an Alexander Campbell to a duel on account of a "gross insult." The presumption is that the two men met on the field of honour; however, Campbell had the draw on him and George Scott's career and life was ended, there and then. The DCB reports that Scott left a will which provided for his wife Abigail (the couple was apparently childless), and legacies, among others, were left to his three brothers, one of whom was named Joseph, who was then located in Halifax.

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Peter Landry
2012 (2020)