Scott, Sir Walter, 1st Bt

Holograph manuscripts. SL V 24 is Ballads . SL V 26 is The Abbot and SL V 27 is The Death of the Laird's Jock . SL V 25 is a letter by Sir Walter Scott and his wife Lady Charlotte Margaret Scott.

Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771 in Edinburgh. He was educated at Edinburgh High School, 1779-1783 and Edinburgh University, where he studied arts, 1783-1786 and law, 1789-1792. In 1792 Scott was called to the bar and was appointed sheriff-deputy for the county of Selkirkshire in 1799. In 1806 he became clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh. In 1813 Scott became a partner in a printing and publishing business, James Ballantyne & Co. In 1825 the company went bankrupt and Scott found himself personally liable for the payments of debt. The company folded the following year. Scott wrote both prose and poetry. His first works were two translations of German ballads by Bürger published in 1796 and 1799. His two volume work Minstrels of The Scottish Border appeared between 1802-1803. His first novel Waverly was published in 1814. He also contributed to the Edinburgh Review and the Quarterly Review . Scott was created a baronet in 1820, the same year as his novel The Abbot was published. He died at Abbotsford on 21 September 1832.

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University of London Library, The Sterling library: a catalogue of the printed books and literary manuscripts collected by Sir Louis Sterling and presented by him to the University of London , Cambridge, (1954).

The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, holds correspondence, literary manuscripts and papers, personal accounts and papers, 1825-1834 (Ref: NRA(S)3211), correspondence with John and James Ballantyne, 1805-1819 (Ref: MSS 861-864, 921), letters to Blackwoods Publishers, 1805-1830 (Ref: MSS 4001-4028, 4937), letters to Edward Blore, 1818-[1823] (Ref: MS 3029), correspondence with Robert Cadell (Ref: MSS 742-45, 15980), correspondence with Archibald Constable, Robert Cadell and others, 1796-1831 (Ref: MSS 742-745), letters from Constables, 1814-1832 (Ref: MSS 789-797), letters to George Craig, 1816-1826, letters to Lady Frances Douglas, 1804-1809 (Ref: Acc 7042), letters to Thomas Crofton Croker, 1825-1827 (Ref: MS 851), letters to Maria Edgeworth, letters to George Ellis, 1801-1809 (Ref: MS 1750), letters to Charles Erskine, 1800-1826, letters to Sir William Forbes, 1778-1802 (Ref: Acc 4796), letters to John Gibson, 1826-1831 (Ref: Acc 6080/19), letters to Rachel Jobson and other, 1825-1831 (Ref: MS 15555), letters to William Laidlaw, 1802-1831 (Ref: MSS 860, 969), correspondence with Lady Anne Barnard (née Lindsay), 1823-1824 (Ref: MSS 3897-3899), correspondence with John Gibson Lockhart, 1805-1831 (Ref: MSS 924-927, 930-935, 1750-1753), letters to Longman and Rees, 1803-1812, letters to Robert Lundie, 1822-1832 (Ref: MS 1676), correspondence with Henry Mackenzie, 1807-1825 (Ref: MSS 3876-3901), letters to Gilber Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 2nd Earl of Minto, 1806-1828 (Ref: MSS 11909-11914, 13408), letters to Patrick Murray, 1793-1832 (Ref: MS 8494), letters to Charlotte Campion Pascoe, Robert Pitcairn and others, 1811-1830 (Ref: MS 5317), letters to John Richardson, 1810-1830 (Ref: Acc 11245), correspondence with his wife, Charlotte Mary Scott, 1797-1815 (Ref: MSS 1549-1551), letters to William Scott, Baron Stowell, 1795-1831 (Ref: MSS 2889-2890), letters to Anna Seward, 1802-1809 (Ref: MS 854), letters to the Shortreed family of Jedburgh, 1792-1831 (Ref: MS 8993), letters to James Skene, 1805-1831 (Ref: MS 965), letters to Robert Southey, 1806-1830 (Ref: MS 853), letters to Robert Surtees, 1806-1823 (Ref: MS 9308), letters to Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Countess of Sutherland, 1808-1823 (Ref: NRA(S)0239 Dep 313-14), letters to Daniel Terry, 1813-1827 (Ref: MS 852), letters to Thomas Thomson, 1791-1831 (Ref: MS 3134), correspondence with Joanna Baillie, 1808-1829 (Ref: MSS 851, 3876-3910), correspondence with James Ballantyne and others, 1802-1831 (Ref: MSS 21053-21060), letters to Joseph Train, 1814-1829 (Ref: MS 3277), and letters from Joseph Train, 1817-1831 (Ref: MS 874); Edinburgh University Library contains correspondence, literary manuscripts and papers (Ref: La III 498, 584), letters, 1817-1823 (Ref: E95. 16, 17, 29, 32, 40, 41, 42, 63), letters and a manuscript of Helvellyn , 1814-1830, a manuscript of The House of Aspen , 1800 (Ref: Acc 11772), letters to Maria Edgeworth and others, 1803-1832 (Ref: La III 585), and letters to David Laing, 1810-1831 (Ref: La iv 1); the British Library has a printers manuscript of Kenilworth (Ref: Eg MS 1661), correspondence with Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, 7th Bt, (Ref: M/615), correspondence with the RT Hon Sir Robert Peel, 1st Bt, 1822-1829 (Ref: Add MSS 40350-99), letters from Ann Seward, 1802-1808 (Ref: Add MS 37425 ff97-116), letters to G Thomson, 1805-1821 (Ref: Add MSS 35263-65 passim); National Archives of Scotland hold correspondence with Hugh Hepburne-Scott, 6th Baron Polwarth, and his wife Harriet, 1803-1832 (Ref: GD157/2011-2012, 2015, 2017), letters to William and Sir George Clerk, 1788-1827 (Ref: GD18), letters to General Fairfax (Ref: NRA(S)1236 GD300), letters to William John Kerr, 5th Marquess of Lothian, and William Kerr, 6th Marquess of Lothian, 1803-1825 (Ref: MS 1676), letters to John Taylor (Ref: GD240/19/3), letters to Charles William Henry Montagu Scott, 4th Duke of Buccleuch and Henry James Montagu-Scott, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton, [1807-1829] (Ref: GD224/32-3), and letters, 1778-1784; the Huntington Library, California, contains literary manuscripts and letters, 1803-1831 (Ref: NUC MS 62-356), and a copy of The history of Scotland , 1828-1829; The King's School, Canterbury, Kent, holds literary manuscripts; Lady Stair's House, Edinburgh, contains letters and manuscripts; Beinecke Library, Yale University, holds papers; the Signet Library, Edinburgh, has literary manuscripts, and letters to James Ballantyne and others, 1808-1826; the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, holds letters and an assignment of copyright (Ref: Forster Collection); Manchester Local Studies Archive Service contains manuscripts; the Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre, Selkirk, holds letters, mostly relating to Scott's work as sheriff, 1800-1829 (Ref: SC/S/12/19); the Brotherton Library, Leeds University, contains letters, 1814-1830; the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Dublin, has letters to Anne Jane Hamilton, Lady Abercorn, 1806-1826 (Ref: D623 and T2541); the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London, holds correspondence with Joanna Baillie, 1808-1828; the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, has letters to George Gordon Byron, 6th Lord Byron, and Anne Isabella Byron, Lady Byron, 1812-1817 (Ref: Dep Lovelace Byron), letters to Sir Cuthbery Sharp (Ref: 13 theta 114), letters to Mary, Thomas and William Somerville (Ref: Somerville Collection dep c 369, 372), and letters to Louisa Stuart, 1808-1830 (Ref: MS Eng Lett c 392); Glasgow City Archives hold letters to Sir Ilay Campbell, Lord Succoth, 1809 (Ref: TD 219 6); Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Connetticut, USA, has letters to Lady Frances Douglas, 1804-1809 (Ref: Acc 7042); Castle Ashby has letters to Margaret Compton, Lady Northampton, 1809-1830 (Ref: vol 5, 1357); Hornel Library, Kirkcudbright, holds letters to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 1802-1831 (Ref: NRA(S)0118); the New York Public Library, the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, and the Fales Library at New York University, USA, all contain papers; the Wordsworth Library, Ambleside, holds letters from William Wordsworth, 1806-[1815]; letters to William Adam, 1817-1831 (Ref: NRA(S)0063/p126), letters to James Ballantyne, [1826-1827] (Ref: NRA(S)1275 GD224), letters to the Buchanan and Edmonston families (Ref: NRA(S)0353), letters to John Scott of Gala (Ref: NRA(S)0181), letters to Sir John Sinclair, 1st Bt, (Ref: NRA(S)0189), correspondence with Lady Louisa Stuart, 1783-1839 (Ref: NRA(S)0114/p5), and letters to John and Archibald Campbell Swinton (Ref: NRA(S)0200) are all held privately (contact the NRA for details).

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