David Scott (27 February 1746 – 4 October 1805) of Dunninald Castle,

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, was a

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merchant and director of the East India Company, and a Member of Parliament (MP). He sat in the

House of Commons of Great Britain The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of th ...

from 1790 to 1800, and in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

until his death.

Career

Scott was born in early 1746 at the family home, Dunninald House in the parish of Craig,

to Robert Scott (1705–1780), the laird of Dunninald, and his wife, Ann. He was educated at the University of St Andrews, before seeking his fortune in India. He built up a substantial merchant business in Bombay before moving to London in 1786 to direct the English end of his business. He became a director of the East India Company in 1788. In 1785 Scott helped James Charles Stuart Strange in a

maritime fur trade The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in ex ...

. Strange commanded two ships that sailed from India to the Pacific Northwest Coast, collected

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the small ...

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.

Parliament

At the 1790 general election he was elected unopposed as the MP for

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, but resigned that seat in early 1796 to contest a by-election in the Perth Burghs, where he was returned unopposed in March 1796. He was re-elected at the general election later in 1796, and held the seat until his death in

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on 4 October 1805, aged 59, after a long and severe illness. 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

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, David 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