Jonathan Scott (1823-1900; e.m.1846) was brought up an Anglican, but was employed as a hired local preacher before becoming a PM itinerant in 1846. He itinerated entirely in East Anglia, before retiring in 1871. In the course of his ministry he turned down invitations to serve in Melbourne, Australia and South Africa. In retirement he served as Superintendent Attendance Officer of the Norwich School Board and for eighteen years from 1882 was also chief agent of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society.

His architect son Augustus Frederick Scott (1854-1936) was born at Rockland St. Peter, Norfolk and educated at the Old Commercial School, Norwich and Elmfield College, York. He then studied building with the firm of Robert Skinner of East Dereham and that of John Henry Brown, Cathedral and Board School architect in Norwich. After two years with Liverpool Corporation, in 1886 he established himself as a surveyor and architect in Norwich. His two sons, Eric Wilfred Scott and Theodore Gilbert Scott were also architects and became partners in 1912.

His preference was for the gothic style. As well as WM and Baptist chapels and Sunday School premises, he designed numerous PM chapels in East Anglia, including West Acre (1887), East Runton (1897), Buckenham Memorial, Fakenham (1908), Attleborough (1913) and Castle Street, Cambridge (1914). In 1902 he was responsible for Scott Memorial PM church, Norwich in memory of his father. His other chapels included Baptist (1902) and WM (1910), Cromer and Belvoir Street WRU 'Memorial Building', Norwich, as well as the restoration and refurbishing of Calvert Street UMFC, Norwich in 1894. Among his secular buildings was the first reinforced concrete shop premises and factory in Norwich.He was an enthusiastic cyclist and boasted that he owned the first bicycle with pneumatic tyres in Norwich. As a PM local preacher he travelled thousands of miles by bicycle and even cycled to London on several occasions for business. A Liberal in politics, he undertook extensive electioneering, but never held any public office himself. He maintained a native Chinese Christian missionary in Western China for many years at his own expense. A man of extremely strong principles, he was a teetotaller, a vegetarian on moral grounds and a strict Sabbatarian. He refused to pay that proportion of his rates which went to funding Anglican schools, and when bailiffs came to remove paintings from his walls he would buy them back again. He held several offices at Scott Memorial church, but in 1920 quarrelled irrevocably with the superintendent minister, the Rev. Percy Carden (1880-1935; e.m.1900) and in consequence left the PM Connexion.

Entry written by: DCD and NV
Category: Person
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