12 Facts About Reginald Scot

Reginald Scot was an Englishman and Member of Parliament, the author of The Discoverie of Witchcraft, which was published in 1584.

Reginald Scot was son of Richard Scot, second son of Sir John Scott of Scots Hall in Smeeth, near Ashford in Kent.

Reginald Scot's mother was Mary, daughter of George Whetenall, sheriff of Kent in 1527.

Reginald Scot's writings show some knowledge of law, but he is not known to have joined any inn of court.

Reginald Scot's time was mainly passed as an active country gentleman, managing property which he inherited from his kinsfolk about Smeeth and Brabourne, or directing the business affairs of his first cousin, Sir Thomas Scot, who proved a generous patron, and in whose house of Scots Hall he often stayed.

Reginald Scot was collector of subsidies for the lathe of Shepway in 1586 and 1587, and he was perhaps the Reginald Scot who acted in 1588 as a captain of untrained foot-soldiers at the county muster.

Reginald Scot describes himself as "esquire" in the title-page of his Discoverie, and is elsewhere designated "armiger".

Subsequently, Reginald Scot married a second wife, a widow named Alice Collyar, who had a daughter called Mary by her former husband.

Reginald Scot, according to a statement of the printer, was out of London while the work was going through the press.

Reginald Scot enumerates 212 authors whose works in Latin he had consulted, and twenty-three authors who wrote in English.

Reginald Scot studied the superstitions respecting witchcraft in courts of law in country districts, where the prosecution of witches was constant, and in village life, where the belief in witchcraft flourished.

Reginald Scot set himself to prove that the belief in witchcraft and magic was rejected alike by reason and religion, and that spiritualistic manifestations were either wilful impostures or illusions due to mental disturbance in the observers.