George Scott (army officer)



George Scott (unknown - 1767) was British army officer stationed in Acadia who fought in Father Le Loutre's War and the French and Indian War.

He first served 40th Regiment of Foot since 1746 and then became captain in 1751. In 1753 he took command of Fort Lawrence. He made contact with the spy Thomas Pichon. Scott relinquished command of Fort Lawrence in the autumn of 1754. Preparations were then being made for an attack on Beauséjour, and he was appointed to command one of the two battalions of Massachusetts troops. He played a considerable part in the brief siege. When Monckton departed Beausejour in November Scott was left in command in the Chignecto area.

The commander of the light troops was Major George Scott, an officer of Major General Peregrine Thomas Hopson's 40th Regiment of Foot, who was familiar with irregular tactics. Orders issued on 12 May 1758, stated that "the rangers, and light infantry, appointed to act as rangers, are to be commanded by Major Scott." He was to serve with distinction both during the Siege of Louisbourg (1758) and later with Major General James Wolfe at Battle of the Plains of Abraham. He also was employed in the Petitcodiac River Campaign and the St. John River Campaign against the Acadians.

Scott was given the rank of major in the army effective 28 December 1758. He remained on the list of the 40th Foot as a captain, and evidently was an absentee company commander in the regiment until his death. Monckton appointed Scott governor of Grenada island. Scott made his will there in December 1764, just before leaving to become lieutenant-governor of Dominica. Scott created a will and left notice that he would be in a dual the following day. Scott was killed or mortally wounded in a duel on 6 November 1767. He left in his will property to his wife Abigail and his father, three brothers (one of whom, Joseph Scott, lived in Halifax at Scott Manor House beside Fort Sackville) and three sisters. A purported miniature of Scott is reproduced in Webster’s Thomas Pichon; it portrays a sharp and rather unpleasant face.