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 HomePort S.S. Neptune which was first Captained by Hon. Edward White
1950's Letters from Louise (Scott) Campbell
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Undated partial letter, likely late 1930's

Progenitor of the Scott family . . . [Serg David Scott] was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and was closely related to Sir Walter Scott. He was a strong athletic young man, and was engaged in teaching boxing etc., when the English were wanting men from Scotland in their army, so this young man was impressed into the English army. He was engages to a young Scotch girl who lived near where he was from.

This was Jane Delgaddie, With her families approval she resolved to follow her lover and marry him, when she found him. She rode horseback with a groom from ther home to where he was stationed in England, probably Woolwich. There they were married. He was in training as a soldier. They lived in an army fort a few years. A son David was born there, He later went to Pittsburgh, married and raised a family there. ---- Scott was ordered to go with troops to Halifax. His wife and small . . .  [rest is missing]

to join him, and she was the daughter of a wealthy family from (I think) Edinburgh.

Undated partial letter, likely late 1930's and possibly attached to the above document

Just so you may have the story of my Great Grandparents Scott as told me by my Father James Scott, Uncle John and Uncle Albert. I saw my Grandfather John Scott in Boston in 1871 when my Father was called to Boston an[d] Grandfather [John Scott of Woolwich 1800-1876] was expected to die and Father [James Sterling Scott] took me with him. Did Grandfather live on the farm you lived on ? [close but not sure if he lived in same house] Was your Grandfather David my Uncle David born there too ? [yes] After my Father's Mother died [Elizabeth Dill died in 1835] David [Scott, 1825-1906] lived with some relative. I thot this farm was theirs and left to David.

Editors Note: - This final statement is accurate as David Scott of Ste Croix, Nova Scotia following his mother's death was raised by his maternal aunt and uncle [Alexander Dill & Mary Rysdale Smith] who having no children left their farm to David Scott in a will registered 25 May 1857. The property known as Elm Farm remains in the Scott family today. David and his wife Jane Hunter Dill honoured his adopted parents in naming their first son, Alexander Dill Scott. The Dill name continued to be used by succeeding generations of Scott descendants as a middle name. For additional information on this generation see Family From Forfar Chapter 2 or Alexander Dill Scott.


Undated likely c.1937

David [Scott's family] were on a sailing vessel for the trip which took longer than expected, and a second son, John was born on the vessel, but in the family Bible he is listed as being born in Woolwich, is date given ? which no doubt was to give him a place of birth, as they had come from there, and may have expected to return there. After a few years in Halifax the Father was shot and killed by a drunken soldier. The wife Jane Delgaddie Scott was left with two sons. John married Elizabeth Dill of Nova Scotia, and his Mother lived with him for several years and told the children to sure to remember that their Grandfather was related to Sir Walter Scott, she told them the relationship but that didn't mean to them what it meant to her. The son John had five children Jane, David, John , Sarah, James. When the youngest, James was two years old the Mother died.

Later John married --- DeWolf. They had two sons Daniel and Albert.

You can follow out the family who are children of John Scott and Elizabeth Dill our Grandparents, your Great Grandparents.
If we had the name of the soldier Scott, (I always thot it David) and the date fo the birth of John of Woolwich. If the Bible had only given his parents name and date of his birth, and if I knew that first name of  -- DeWolf, Father's step mother, who died when he was fourteen, and caused him to join his brother John in Boston, the story would be easy to follow.

Uncle John [John Adams Scott 1827-1903] told me often that that his Grandmother Jane Delgeddie used to keep telling them of Sir Walter [Scott], that she read him Marmion and read him poems, and recite them with tears running down her cheeks. She must have longed for Scotland. I guessed at the spelling of her name. I thot (sic) she was Jane but it could be Jean or Jeannie easily.

She may have had daughers but I am not sure, tho I have heard there were, but no names that I ever heard. I wonder where she was buried, the marker might give her married name and age etc !
Editors Note: - Most of the questions she asks are now known facts and are told in the narrative Family from Forfar.


Dated Dec. 9, 1938

I was glad to receive your letter giving the information you got from the Sterling [family] bible, and the facts you found about a Jane and David Scott having a daughter [ Sarah ?] baptized [at St. Matthew’s, Halifax N.S.]  The names seem to be the ones we thought our great grandparents had. There was a daughter possibly two. I know this from a clipping sent us when cousin Thomas Scott of Pittsburgh died.  The girls seems to have come to New England according to that. In this clipping was the statement cousin Thomas was from the Sir Walter Scott family, I don’t know what became of the clipping. Mother had it a long time but I didn’t find it among her papers.  It was supposed this ancestor who came to Halifax, was a son of a brother of Sir Walter.

Uncle John [John Adams Scott 1827-1903 Boston] told me his grandmother this Jane Delgedie came to live with him in Boston, I think it was, and that she used to repeat long poems of Scott and say “always remember Sir Walter Scott was a relative”. It is possible this memory was of her when he was still in Nova Scotia.

This ancestor conducted some kind of athletic school and was impressed into the English Army.  When taken to England his fiancé rode horseback to join him, and she was the daughter of a wealthy family from (I think) Edinburgh.  I wish I had taken down some facts, but I trusted my memory! Uncle Albert [Thomas Albert Scott, 1840-1911 Boston] used to say that some time he was going to go to Scotland and trace his ancestry there but he never went.

[ I wonder if this reference to Thomas’s obituary was recalling him having two aunts and not two great-aunts as the letter suggests ?]

Editors Note: - A persistent family tradition that connected this Scott family to Sir Walter Scott, had caused my father, Rev. John Redford Scott, to examine the records related to Thomas Scott, brother of Sir Walter and his military service in Canada. The facts around Thomas Scott's service did not coorelate with his own ancestor, Serg. David Scott who had served with the Royal Artillery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I mention this as both families had individuals named Thomas and Walter this could add some confusion for readers of these letters.

Dated July 16, 1950
"There may be some connection that was not as close as the Thomas (Sir Walter's brother) case is.  It is quite possible he is the one, but not at all certain, and even in Scotland I doubt if we can get any closer to facts.  In the days when he lived family lost track of each other by changing countries.  That probably is why we are not sure. Think [Great] Uncle David [Scott of Pittsburgh] was lost to his family over sixty years, but he named his first son Thomas, the second Walter [actually a grandson]. They too are gone,"
Editors Note: -  The fact that she was in her nineties and the Pittsburgh names were individuals of her grandparents and parents generation who she never met, may account for her missing a generation.


Dated July 16, 1950

"David Scott, his brother [referring to her grandfather John Scott's, (1800-1876) brother David]  I think was the older one, so I was told, and he was supposed to have been killed by the Indians when he was in Pittsburgh then an army fort.  He was not heard of till near the end of his life, and no doubt was away when his father died [she did not know that his father died when he was an infant]. I had heard there were two daughters, but I do not know about them.  I remember a notice from a newspaper being sent my Father telling of the death of a sister of Grandfather and it spoke of another sister." . .  .

"This Uncle David, brother of our Grandfather was lost for over fifty years.  He went to Pittsburgh in the early days, but Grandfather [John Scott, 1800-1876] and his family always tried to find him.  Cousin Millie [Boston] saw an item in the paper about the serious illness of the Father of Thomas Scott, wrote to them and found he was the long lost brother and Uncle John A. [John Adams Scott 1827-1903, Boston] took his Father to Pittsburgh and so he saw his long lost brother in his last illness.  Grandfather must have been seventy of more then, and I remember the great joy with which Uncle John wrote me when the brothers met.  David had given up his family as he wrote many times in the early days, he said [he] could not understand why he did not hear [from] his family in Nova Scotia, [they] believed he had been killed by Indians in the state of Penn. and they did not receive his letters, so the Edinburgh family [Sir Walter's] could easily have lost track of Thomas [Sir Walter Scott's brother] and family.  Communication then was so different from now.


Transcribed from originals by Ian W. Scott, Charlottetown P.E.I. with some spellings updated for clarity and [inserted information] added to distinguish individuals with similar names.

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