Hugh Stowell Scott

Hugh Stowell Scott (9 May 1862 – 19 November 1903)[1][2] was an English novelist who wrote under the pseudonym of Henry Seton Merriman.

[3][4] Born in Newcastle upon Tyne,[5] he became an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, but then took to travel and writing novels, many of which had great popularity.

[9][7] Scott left £5000 in his will to Evelyn Beatrice Hall, his sister-in-law and a fellow writer, best known for a biographical work, The Friends of Voltaire.

Scott explained the legacy as a "token of my gratitude for her continued assistance and literary advice, without which I should never have been able to have made a living by my pen.

[5] His other novels include The Phantom Future (his only novel set entirely in England, 1888), Suspense (1890), The Slave of the Lamp (1892), From One Generation to Another (1892), With Edged Tools (a bestseller in 1894), The Sowers (generally considered his best, set in Russia, where it was banned) (1896), In Kedar's Tents (1897),[11] Roden's Corner (1898), Dross (1899), Grey Lady; Isle of Unrest (1900), The Velvet Glove; The Vultures (1902), Queen; Barlasch of the Guard (1903) and The Last Hope (1904).