SCOTT, Jonathan. Shrewsbury 1754 — Shrewsbury 11.2.1829. British Colonial Officer and Oriental (Arabic and Persian) Scholar in India. Son of Jonathan Scott and Mary Sandford, brother of John Scott (1747–1819), an officer in India and supporter of Warren Hastings. Educated in Shrewsbury. “To India, in the 29th N.I., in 1772, Captain 1778, Persian Secretary to Warren Hastings. Helped to found the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Returned to England, 1785… Professor of Oriental Languages at the R[oyal] M[ilitary] College, 1802-5, and the first to hold a similar appointment at Haileybury.” Hon. D.C.L. 1805 Oxford. Married his cousin Anne Austin, one daughter and one son.

Publications: A Translation of the Memoirs of Eradut Khan, a Nobleman of Hindostan, containing interesting anecdotes of the Emperor Alumgeer Aurungzebe, and his successors Shaw Aulum and Jehaundar Shaw; in which are displayed the causes of the very precipitate decline of the Mogul Empire in India. 12+96 p. L. 1786.

– A Translation of Ferishta’s History of the Dekkan, with a History of Bengal from the Accession of Aliverdi Khan to the year 1780. 1-2. L. 1794 (contains only the part left out in Dow’s translation).

– Bahar Danush, or Garden of Knowledge; an Oriental Romance translated from the Persic of Einaiut Oollah. 1-3. Shrewsbury 1799.

Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters from the Arabic and Persian. 446 p. Shrewsbury 1800.

Transl. from French extracts from Galland’s Arabian Nights Entertainments, with introduction, notes and additions. 1-6. L. 1811.

Sources: Buckland, Dictionary; H.L.T[homson], D.N.B. 51, 1897, 58f.; Wikipedia (based on Thomson).