The New International Encyclopædia/Scott, Reginald

SCOTT or SCOT, Reginald (c.1538-99). A writer against witchcraft, son of Richard Scot of Scots Hall at Smeeth, in Kent. In 1555 he entered Hart Hall, Oxford, but left without a degree. He passed his life in Kent as a country gentleman. His famous work, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) was designed to demonstrate the absurdity of the prevalent belief in witchcraft. Besides being full of learning, it is marked by passages of sound sense and humane feeling, qualities that naturally excited the antipathy of King James, who replied in his Dæmonology (1597). On coming to the English throne, James ordered Scott's book to be burned. Scott also published a valuable book entitled A Perfect Platform of a Hop Garden (1574). The Discoverie was edited by Brinsley Nicholson (London, 1886).