SCOTT, John

Well known for his work on Hemiptera but also took an interest in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera of which he formed a good collection. Born in Morpeth. Few details of his early life appear to be known but his obituaries indicate that he was early forced to fend for himself and that by 1849 he was employed as a civil engineer in Glasgow. Shortly after he moved to Stockton-on-Tees, and by 1859 to London where he worked for a firm of metal brokers. After the outbreak of the American Civil War he became Secretary to a Marine Insurance Society. When that Company was taken over, he resigned and took on various jobs including working as a railway surveyor in Spain, and as an engineer in Plymouth and then at Lee-on-Solent. At this last he had several severe epileptic fits which left him partially paralysed. He was declared mentally unsound and placed in an asylum where he died. Scott is recorded to have been a good musician with a wide knowledge of English literature, but he had a violent temper and an acerbic sense of humour which made him no friends. Mentioned in the Gorham diary at Birmingham and in Oliver Janson’s diary at Cambridge (eg. Feb. 1871). The Janson entry for 17 February 1876 states that his father had purchased Scott’s collection, but it is not known to whom it was subsequently sold. Some specimens collected by him are in the Mason Collection at Bolton (marked with the number 911). Gilbert (1977) lists 6 obituaries. (MD 11/04)