The son of Grizell and Robert Scott, he was born on 13 November 1777 at Lanark, where his father was a skinner.
He attended the grammar school at Musselburgh, and at the age of ten was articled to Andrew Robertson, an engraver at Edinburgh; there he also worked in the Trustees' Academy.
[1] Scott first became known for some plates in James Anderson of Hermiston's The Bee for 1793 and 1794, and a set of Views of Seats and Scenery chiefly in the Environs of Edinburgh, from drawings by Alexander Carse and Andrew Wilson, published in 1795 and 1796.
He made the most of his abilities, and was known in his day for his small book illustrations; he carried on a manufactory in Parliament Stairs, Edinburgh, employing many assistants.
He engraved the illustrations to George Barry's History of the Orkney Islands, 1805, and to Scenery of Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, 1808; he contributed plates for many years to the Scots Magazine, and put in the landscape backgrounds of some of those for John Bell's Poets of Great Britain.