Scott, Thomas

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Thomas Scott, 1747–1821, English clergyman and biblical scholar. Ordained a priest in 1773, he served in several curacies. In Olney he succeeded (1781) John Newton, through whose influence his views had been changed from Unitarianism to Calvinism. That experience Scott recorded in The Force of Truth (1779), which was revised by William Cowper and passed through a number of editions. In 1801 he became vicar of Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire. His most notable work is a commentary on the Bible (4 vol., 1788–92), many times reissued. His works (10 vol., 1823–25) and his letters and papers (1824) were edited by his son.

See biography by A. C. Downer (1909).

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