Sir John Scott ( â 24 September 1616), of Nettlestead and Scot's Hall, was an English landowner, army officer and politician. He was elected MP for the seat of Kent in 1604 and Maidstone in 1614. He was knighted in 1588.
He was born around 1564, the second son of Sir Thomas Scott (d. 1594) of Scot's Hall and his first wife Elizabeth Baker, daughter of Sir John Baker of Sissinghurst, Kent.
He was a student at Hart Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated, on 20 May 1580, at the age of 16.
His father settled on his second son the manor house, Nettlestead Place, in Nettlestead, Kent and in his will left him ã150. On the death of his older brother, Thomas, in 1610, he inherited Scot's Hall in Smeeth, Kent. In addition to Nettlestead and the ScotâÂÂs Hall estate, he also leased from the Crown nearby Aldington Park, a property that had come into his possession some years earlier following the death of two of his younger brothers.
He served as captain of a band of lancers in the English army in the Netherlands, and in 1588 was knighted in the field by Lord Willoughby for his services. In 1597 he commanded a ship in the expedition to the Azores.
In 1601, Scott was implicated in Essex's Rebellion but succeeded in clearing himself, and in the same year was a parliamentary candidate for Kent in 1601. He was unsuccessful on this first attempt, but was elected its MP in the Parliament of 1604 and for Maidstone in the Addled Parliament of 1614.
In November 1603 Anne of Denmark appointed him as one of the advisors for the administration of her English jointure lands. Scott was an early investor in the Colony of Virginia. He became a member of the Council for Virginia in 1607, the year when that colony was re-established, subscribing ã75, and was a councillor of the Virginia Company of London in 1609.
By 1593 he was a justice of the peace (JP) for Kent; captain of militia, foot, from 1598 to 1601, and horse in 1611. From 1601 he served as Deputy lieutenant; commissioner for sewers, Kent and Sussex from 1602 to 1609, inquiry, lands and goods of George Brooke, Kent, in 1603, and subsidy from 1607 to 1608.
He was made a freeman of Maidstone in 1612, and was a commissioner for aid, Kent, in 1612; collector, composition for purveyance, Aylesford division, Kent, in 1614; commissioner for charitable uses from 1615 to 1616.
Scott married twice, but had no children by either wife:
He died without issue on 24 September 1616 and was buried in , Kent; in the Scott Chapel, there is a tablet as follows:
His widow, who survived him by about six months, died in early 1617, and was buried in St Mary's Church, Nettlestead, where her survives. Nettlestead Place and the Scot's Hall estate passed to his younger brother, Edward.