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“Liber in folio scriptus Anglica lingua a Reginaldo Scoto in quo plurima occurrunt contra magiæ existentiam argumenta. Est ille etiam in Belgicam linguam conversus: sed plenior editio est ultima Anglica.”—Morhof., ii, 459.

[Then a short note on the three editions.]

In 1874 there were privately printed, Memorials of the Scot Family, by Jas. Renat Scott, Esq., and from them I extract the following tables:

But as the first part of the ancestry given in this book is not supported by anything beyond possibility and legend, so this latter portion is incorrect in various particulars. Instead, however, of taking each inaccuracy item by item, it will be simpler to give a consecutive account of such facts as to his ancestry, and as to Reginald Scott himself, as can be proved by documentary evidence or rendered probable by deductions therefrom.

John Philipot, Rouge Dragon and Somerset Herald, who died in 1645, set forth the pleasant and picturesque, but slightly supported origin of the family. I say pleasant, because the Scotts in the times of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, were a family of large possessions, wealth, and influence, influence so great that it is said that Elizabeth refused the request made by Lord Buckhurst, or the Earl of Leicester, that Sir Thomas Scott should be ennobled, saying that he had already more influence in Kent than she had. She seems also to have had from this, or from some other reason, a personal dislike to them, for in her Progress in 1573, she having passed three days at his father-in-law’s, Sir John Baker, of Sissinghurst Castle, declined to visit Scotts-hall, saying she wished to proceed to her own house, though on her way thither she had to pass Sir Thomas’s gates. In his Villare Cantianum, p. 313, Philipot has these words: “Scotts-hall, which is now and hath been for divers Descents the Inheritance of eminent Gentlemen of that Sirname, whom I dare aver upon probable Grounds were originally called Balioll. William Balioll, second brother to Alexander de Balioll, frequently writ his Name William de Balioll le Scot, and it is probable, that upon the Tragedy of John, Earl of Atholl, who was made prisoner by Edward the first, and barbarously executed, in the year 1307. (whilst he endeavoured more nobly than successfully to defend the gasping Liberty of Scotland against the Eruption of that Prince;) this Family to decline the Fury of that Monarch, who was a man of violent passions, altered the name of Balioll to that of their Extraction and Country, and assumed for the future the Name of Scot. That the Sirname of this Family was originally Balioll, I farther upon these Reasons assert. First, the ancient Arms of Balioll Colledge in Oxford, which was founded by John Balioll, and dedicated to St. Katharine was a Katherin-Wheele, being still part of the paternal Coat of this Family. Secondly, David de Strabogie, who was Son and Heir to the unfortunate Earl above-said, astonished with an Example of so much Terror, altered his name from Balioll to Strabogie, which was a Signory which accrued to him the Right of his Wife, who was Daughter and Heir to John Comin, Earl of Badzenoth and Strabogie, and by this Name King Edward the second, omitting that of Balioll restored Chilham-castle to him for Life, in the fifteenth year of his reign. Thirdly, the Earls of Buccleugh, and the Barons of Burley in Scotland, who derive themselves originally from Balioll, are known at this instant by no other Sirname, but Scot, and bear with some inconsiderable Difference, those very Arms which are at present the paternal Coat of the Family of Scots-hall.”