Scott History

Scott belongs to the same branch of names as Inglis and Wallace (or Welsh). Uchtred "filius Scoti"was living in 1130 and his descendant Sir Richard "le Scot" obtained large estates in Larnarkshire by marriage with an heiress, and lived through the wars of independence to die in 1320. There is nothing to suggest that he descended from the original Scots of Dalriada. His successor, Sir Walter Scott, received a charter to the barony of Kirkud from Robert II in 1389 and was killed at Homildon Hill in 1402. Sir Walter's son, Robert, obtained part of the lands of Branxholm whose castle is still the seat of his senior descendant. Robert's son, Sir Walter of Branxholm, obtained the remainder of those lands after he had helped to suppress the Douglas family in 1455. Branxholm was erected into a barony in 1488, in the time of Sir Walter's son David, lord of Buccleuch.
David's great-grandson Sir Walter of Buccleuch was knighted at Flodden, but when the baby Mary, Queen of Scots became sovereign he appears to have formed the disreputable plan to kidnap her and hand her over to Henry VIII. The Duke of Suffolk reported: "Buccleuch's offer to deliver the young Queen seems an unlikely matter and not with the King's honour to be practiced in such sort."Scott was appointed Warden of the Middle Marches, fought at Pinkie in 1547, married the widow of George Turnbull of Bedrule amongst a succession of wives, and was murdered in Edinburgh High Street in 1552. He was succeeded by his grandson Sir Walter, described as "a man of rare qualities", whose son of the same name carried on a predatory war against the English and rescued the Armstrong leader Kinmont Willie from Carlisle when he was imprisoned there. In 1606 he was created 1st Lord Scott of Buccleuch, and his son was made Earl of Buccleuch in 1619. But after the 2nd Earl died in 1651 his daughter Anne became his sole heiress. She married the Duke of Monmouth, eldest bastard son of Charles II. He was created Duke of Buccleuch, a title which survived his attainder and execution. The 3rd Duke became 5th Duke of Queensberry, inheriting the Douglas palace of Drumlanrig, and added to his colossal fortune by marrying the heiress of the Duke of Montagu.
Sir Richard le Scot who died in 1320 possessed a junior grandson, Walter of Synton. The Synton line became extinct in 1721, but it had produced the cadet branch of Harden in 1535, to which Auld Wat was served heir in 1563. He married Mary Scott, "the flower of Yarrow", and from this pair two remarkable branches sprang. In 1677 Walter of Harden married Helen Hepburne, and their descendant married Diana, Baroness of Polwarth in 1754. The Hepburne-Scotts of Polwarth thus retain their descent in the male line.
Greatest of all the Harden branch was Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), 1st baronet of Abbotsford. Beginning as a student of historical documents and a collector of the oral tradition of the Borders, he became first Britain's most popular poet, then Europe's most influential novelist. He made his country a place of pilgrimage from all parts of the world, and when the publishing firm with which he was associated went bankrupt, he chronicled the tragedy of his career in a diary which is perhaps the supreme masterpiece of all his prolific writings.
"I see before me a long, tedious and dark path, but it leads to stainless reputation. If I die in the harrows, as is very likely, I shall die in honour."Thus Scott wrote himself into the grave to honour his obligations.