From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

David Scott (of Dunninald)

Scottish merchant (1746-1805)

Summary

Scottish merchant (1746-1805)

David Scott (27 February 1746 – 4 October 1805) of Dunninald Castle, Angus, was a Scottish merchant and director of the East India Company, and a Member of Parliament (MP). He sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1790 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until his death.

Career

Scott was born in early 1746 at the family home, Dunninald House in the parish of Craig, Angus to Robert Scott (1705–1780), the laird of Dunninald, and his wife, Ann.{{cite ODNB

In 1785 Scott helped James Charles Stuart Strange in a maritime fur trade. Strange commanded two ships that sailed from India to the Pacific Northwest Coast, collected sea otter furs, then sail to Guangzhou (Canton), China, to sell the furs for a large profit. Captain Cook's last voyage had demonstrated the potential for such a venture. Although the expedition was a commercial failure it explored and made discoveries in the Pacific Northwest, whose geography was only poorly understood at the time. In particular Strange and his captains explored the northern end of Vancouver Island, and discovered and named Queen Charlotte Sound and Queen Charlotte Strait. They named the northwest extremity of Vancouver Island Cape Scott, in honor of David Scott.

David Scott, Merchant and Director of the East India Company. Painting by [[Tilly Kettle]], c. 1775.

Parliament

At the 1790 general election he was elected unopposed{{cite book |editor-link=F. W. S. Craig |orig-year=1844-1850 |title-link=The Parliaments of England

His son David Scott (1782–1851), who inherited Dunninald, had hoped to succeed his father as MP for Perth Burghs. However, by the time the younger Scott left his father's deathbed, Sir David Wedderburn had already secured so much support that even the backing of Lord Melville was unable to prevent defeat.

Young David went on to become a director of the East India Company in 1814, and in 1819 he inherited a baronetcy from his uncle James Sibbald Scott.

References

{{Rayment-hc. f. (March 2012)
Gough, Barry M.. (2011). "The Northwest Coast: British Navigation, Trade and Discoveries to 1812". University of British Columbia Press.
{{BCGNIS. 40836. Cape Scott
Stooks Smith, page 675
{{Rayment-hc. p. 1. (March 2012)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1746-births 1805-deaths alumni-of-the-university-of-st-andrews members-of-the-parliament-of-great-britain-for-scottish-constituencies british-mps-1790–1796 british-mps-1796–1800 members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-scottish-constituencies members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-dundee-constituencies uk-mps-1801–1802 uk-mps-1802–1806 scottish-businesspeople directors-of-the-british-east-india-company

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about David Scott (of Dunninald) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report