SCOTT, WALTER [SSNE 4997]

Surname

SCOTT, SCHOT

First name

WALTER

Title/rank

COLONEL

Nationality

SCOT

Region

BALWEARY, FIFE or of SATCHELLS, ROXBURGH, BORDERS

Text source

There may be some confusion between two men here. Sir Walter Scott of Satchells (1614-1694?) and Sir Walter Scott Balweary are both said to have enlisted as in the regiment of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch [SSNE 5009] in 1629. It is most likely that they are the same man, known by various authors by different suffixes. Certainly a Walter Scott began as an ensign in the Earl of Buccleuch's company and succeeded William Douglas as captain on 29 November 1629. Later, Scott became Sergeant-Major in Balfour's regiment on 8 February 1641. By 1649 he had attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment. He served as the colonel of the regiment between 1655-1673, retiring before 1 April of that year when he was succeeded by Henry Graham. He apparently never married. In 1688 Scott of Satchells authored a metrical history of the Scott family which he is said to have dictated being ignorant of writing.

Sources: J. Ferguson, Papers Illustrating the History of the Scots Brigade in the service of the United Netherlands,1572-1697 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp.xxiv, 325, 329, 333, 358, 453, 467, 473, 491-3, 497, 499-502, 526, 535; DNB; NAS GD1/441/11; D. Dobson 'Scottish Soldiers in Continental Europe' [part one] (St Andrews, 1997). See also Scottish Literary Club (Edinburgh, 1892) Series/Item: 20.2. Title: Metrical history of the honourable families of the name of Scot and Elliot in the shires of Roxburgh and Selkirk. Details: Gathered out of ancient chronicles, histories, and traditions of our fathers. Compiled by Captain Walter Scot of Satchells, Roxburghshire. With prefatory notices. Notes: In two parts. Editor: Edited by Thomas G. Stevenson. Contents: Largely verse. From second edition, Edinburgh 1776 (first edition, Edinburgh 1688).

EDIT: 

It is quite possible that it was in fact this (or one of these) Walter Scott(s) who served in the Army of the Covenant by 1644. In “A List of the Severall Regiments and Chief Officers of the Scottish Army Quartered Neer (sic.) Newcastle” from 1644, the Earl of Buccleuch’s Tweedale regiment lists a “William Scott” as its Lieutenant Colonel. However, in CS Terry’s edited collection of Papers Relating to the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant, 1643-1647 (2 Vols., Edinburgh, 1917), Ed Furgol’s A Regimental History of the Covenanting Armies, 1639-1641 (Edinburgh, 1990), and Stuart Reid’s Scots Armies of the Civil War (2nd Impression, Essex, 1982) the Lieutenant Colonel of this regiment is always listed as “Walter Scott.” It is certainly not out of the question that the original list is incorrect; as Steve Murdoch has pointed out, the Lieutenant General of the Foot listed is “John Bayly,” when in fact no such John Bayly existed, and instead the General was William Baillie. N.B., in regards to this point, and in support of CS Terry, that author has proven his veracity, correctly listing “William” instead of “John” Baillie and thus meriting some trust in listing “William” as “Walter,” (Terry, Vol. 1, sig. xlv).

Because the Scott family—specifically the previous Lord and Earl of Buccleuch, both also named Walter Scott [SSNE 5009, 5010]—had been involved in the Scots-Dutch brigade since before 1603, that the Lieutenant Colonel (a Scott) would have been a veteran of Dutch service seems self-evident. Furthermore, between 1641-1649 there is no mention of this Walter Scott (of Satchells/Balweary) in any documents presented in Ferguson’s Scots Brigade in Holland, Vol. 1 (p. 325, 453). During this absence, Lt. Col. Scott appears on the Newcastle list in 1644, after which Furgol writes that Scott was promoted to Colonel of the Tweedale Regiment in 1645. In 1647 he received another commission as Colonel to his own Regiment in the New Model Army. However, after expressing “disgust with the Engager regime he requested and was granted a pass… to leave to the continent in order to seek employment there,” and thus the regiment passed to Lieutenant-General Baillie (Furgol, 263). After having been absent from the records for nearly a decade, Walter Scott of Balweary/Satchells then reappears in 1649 as a Lieutenant Colonel in Buccleuch’s/Almond’s regiment in the Dutch Republic, to be promoted to Colonel in 1655 (Ferguson, 467). This is of course only a theory, and should be regarded with speculation until definitively proven or disproven with further documents not provided in Ferguson.

Two further points in regards to this theory: Walter Scott of Satchells himself writes in the above-ctied Metrical History that he, for fifty-seven years had been both "a soldier abroad, and at home," (Scott, sig. vi-vii). However, another Walter Scott also appears as a Lieutenant Colonel in Lothian's regiments which served in the second Bishops' War and the Irish Rebellion (Furgol, p. 60, 98), which under further scrutiny could either prove, disprove, or have no bearing on this theory.

 

Sources: CS Terry, Papers Relating to the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant, 1643-1647 (2 Vols., Edinburgh, 1917), sig. xlv, passim; Ed Furgol,A Regimental History of the Covenanting Armies, 1639-1641 (Edinburgh, 1990), pp. 182-183, 262-263; Stuart Reid, Scots Armies of the Civil War (2nd Impression, Essex, 1982), Appedices Two and Four, p. 47, 49. Captain Walter Scott, A true history of the honourable families of the name of Scot and Elliot in the shires of Roxburgh and Selkirk. Details: Gathered out of ancient chronicles, histories, and traditions of our fathers (Hawick, 1786), sig. vi-vii; "A list of the Several Regiments and Chief Officers of the Scottish Army quartered neer Newcastle" (London 1644).

 

Edits provided by Mr Jack Abernethy.

English Civil War

Service record

THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, THE SCOTS BRIGADE, COL. BALFOUR, COL. SCOTT

Arrived 1629-01-01, as ENSIGN

Departed 1673-04-01, as COLONEL

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

STUART KINGDOMS, SCOTLAND, COLONEL OF TWEEDALE, SCOTT'S FOOT, MARSTON MOOR

Arrived 1644-01-20, as LIEUTENANT COLONEL

Departed 1645-05-11, as COLONEL

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY