Scott, Dr George
1804-1874; e.m. 1830
WM minister, born in Edinburgh on 18 June 1804. He was sent to Sweden in 1830 to take over the work begun by Joseph Rayner Stephens. He helped to found the Swedish Tract Society, the Swedish Missionary Society and the Swedish Temperance Society. But his adverse comments on theLutheran state church during a visit to America aroused hostility in Sweden. He opened an English Church in Stockholm in 1840, but was forced top abandon the mission in 1842. On a return visit in 1859 he was well received. Dr. Peder Borgen, speaking of his pioneering work in Sweden, said that he 'promoted democritization in Sweden, bringing new social groups into participation in social and political life' .In 1866 he was appointed President of the Canadian Conference. He died in Glasgow on 28 January 1874.
His son James Scott (1835-1911; e.m. 1859) was born in Stockholm on 14 September 1835 and became a missionary in South Africa, first among the Batswana in Thaba 'Nchu 1861-71 and then mainly in Bloemfontein. He was secretary of the South African Conference 1889-91, President in 1892 and 1897 and acting President in 1898. He died at Bloemfontein on 18 November 1911. The pall-bearers at his funeral included a RC priest and a rabbi.
- William Moister, Missionary Worthies, 1782-1885 (1885) pp.216-18
- G.G. Findlay and W.W. Holdsworth, The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (1921-1924), vol. 4 pp.424-6
- Peder Borgen, 'George Scott - Wesleyan Missionary to Sweden: aspects of his preaching', in Richard Sykes (ed.), Beyond the Boundaries: preaching in the Wesleyan tradition (Oxford, 1998) pp.116-35
- Margaret Batty, in Wesley Historical Society, Scottish Branch Journal, 2001