Robert Eden Scott (April 23, 1808 – May 3, 1862) was a prominent

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

planter, lawyer and politician who served many terms in the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

. He also represented

Fauquier County Fauquier is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton. Fauquier County is in Northern Virginia and is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. History In 160 ...

at the

Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 was called in Richmond to determine whether Virginia would secede from the United States, to govern the state during a state of emergency, and to write a new Constitution for Virginia, which was subsequent ...

and the surrounding district in the

Provisional Confederate Congress The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body ...

, until his death at the hands of Union Army deserters while defending his farm.

Early and family life

Born in

Fauquier County, Virginia Fauquier is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton. Fauquier County is in Northern Virginia and is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. History In 16 ...

in 1808 to "Judge" John Scott and his wife Elizabeth Pickett, Robert Eden Scott was the grandson of Episcopal priest Rev. John Scott, who supported independence in the American Revolutionary War. Robert E. Scott survived three wives. On March 10, 1831, he married Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Alexandria lawyer Robert L. Taylor. Their son R. Taylor Scott like his father would become a Virginia lawyer and served in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Career

Scott, a prominent Whig served many times as one of two delegates representing Fauquier County (part-time) in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, winning election and re-election from 1835–1842 and again from 1845–1852. He was also a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1850–1851 and the

, changing his vote between April 4 and 17th to support secession. By 1860, Scott owned 34 slaves, about half children under 15 years of age. Scott also represented the state in the

from 1861 to 1862. The

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

of noted

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Moncure D. Conway Moncure Daniel Conway (March 17, 1832 – November 15, 1907) was an American abolitionist minister and radical writer. At various times Methodist, Unitarian, and a Freethinker, he descended from patriotic and patrician families of Virginia and ...

(1904) mentions the prominent planter. Conway recalls Scott's pre-

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

political orientation, "The Hon. Robert E. Scott charmed me by his fine personality and manners, but he was the leading Whig." Conway admired Scott for opposing the " fire eaters" as well as for publicly predicting that secession would end in ruin. Despite not personally fighting for the Confederacy, Scott was killed by

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

deserters when he confronted them for abusing his land. His son R. Taylor Scott, likewise became a Virginia lawyer, serving in the

Confederate army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the Civil War and later as

Attorney General of Virginia The attorney general of Virginia is an elected constitutional position that holds an executive office in the government of Virginia. Attorneys general are elected for a four-year term in the year following a presidential election. There are no ter ...

References

1808 births 1862 deaths Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States 19th-century American legislators Members of the Virginia House of Delegates People of Virginia in the American Civil War People from Warrenton, Virginia United States politicians killed during the Civil War American slave owners {{Virginia-politician-stub