John Scott

Who was John Scott?

John Scott was a Delegate and a U.S. Representative from Missouri.

Born in Hanover County, Virginia, Scott moved with his parents to Indiana Territory in 1802. He was graduated from Princeton College in 1805. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, in 1806. He presented credentials as a Delegate-elect to the Fourteenth Congress from the Territory of Missouri and served from August 6, 1816, to January 13, 1817, when the election was declared illegal and the seat vacant.

Scott was elected as a Delegate to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses and served from August 4, 1817, to March 3, 1821. Upon the admission of Missouri as a State into the Union, John Scott was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress, reelected as an Adams-Clay Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, and elected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth Congress and served from August 10, 1821, to March 3, 1827. He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Lands. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1826 to the Twentieth Congress. He resumed the practice of law. He died in Ste. Genevieve, in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, on October 1, 1861.