[6] He began his literary career as part of a London circle of expatriate Scots, among them the poet James Thomson and publisher Andrew Millar.

[11] In November 1750, Bolingbroke recommended Scott to Frederick, Prince of Wales as a suitable sub-preceptor or tutor for his son, the future George III.

The prospect of a steady income enabled Scott to marry Sarah Robinson, sister of his friend Thomas and they rented a house in Leicester Square, London.

[12] When Frederick died in April 1751, his son became Prince of Wales and Thomas Hayter, Bishop of Norwich was appointed preceptor or head tutor.

A memorandum was circulated, allegedly written by Horace Walpole, implying George was surrounded by Jacobites, leading to fierce political debate and divisions between Hayter, Scott and other members of the Prince's household.

[15] In 1767, Edward Gibbon and Jacques Georges Deyverdun asked him to supply a paper ‘on the present state of the physical and mathematical sciences’ in England, for inclusion in the Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande-Bretagne.

George Rose, who was Treasurer of the Navy 1807 to 1818 praised him as ‘amiable, honorable, temperate, and one of the sweetest dispositions I ever knew.’ Described as 'tall and big', Fanny Burney described him as ‘very sociable and facetious.’[18] He was a close friend of Samuel Johnson[19] and Lord Auchinleck, father of the biographer James Boswell who records Scott was 'very kind and polite to me.

'[20] One of his most important connections was the political theorist Thomas Paine, who refers to him in 1779 and whose views on George III were allegedly gained from discussions with Scott.