{{Short description|Presbyterian minister and author}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = William Anderson Scott, 1878.jpg | alt = William Anderson Scott circa 1878 | caption = William Anderson Scott {{circa|1878}} | birth_name = | birth_date = January, 1813 | birth_place = Rock Creek, Tennessee, US | death_date = January 14, 1885 | death_place = San Francisco, California, US | other_names = W. A. Scott | occupation = Minister and author | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''William Anderson Scott''' (January, 1813 – January 14, 1885) was an American Presbyterian minister and author.
== Biography == thumb|''The Children of Reverend Scott'' painted in New Orleans William Anderson Scott was born in Rock Creek, Tennessee, in January 1813 to Eli and Martha Scott, although sources differ as to the exact date.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Henry James |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofscottfa00leehiala |title=History of the Scott family |date=1919 |publisher=R.L. Polk and Co. |others=University of California Libraries |location=New York |pages=84}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |date=2015-05-15 |title=William A. Scott, 1813-1885 |url=https://www.presbyteriansofthepast.com/2015/05/15/w-a-scott/ |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=Presbyterians of the Past |language=en-US |archive-date=2020-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729085737/https://www.presbyteriansofthepast.com/2015/05/15/w-a-scott/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=William Anderson Scott Collection |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8h136p3/ |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref> He graduated from Cumberland College in 1833 and attended Princeton Theological Seminary from 1833-34.<ref name=":1" /> He began his ministry in 1835, and his first congregation included Andrew Jackson.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
Scott married Ann Nicholson on January 19, 1836, with whom he had had nine children.<ref name=":0" /> He commissioned a painting of his children, ''The Children of Reverend Scott'', which is studied today as an example of the historical gender and race-based social structure and values of Scott and the times he lived in.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duffy |first=Madeline |year=2017 |title=The Children of Reverend William Anderson Scott: A Portrait Legacy |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=awe |journal=A Woman's Experience |publisher=Brigham Young University |volume=4}}</ref>
Scott served the church in the southern states of Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Louisiana, notably serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans.<ref name=":0" /> He was then called to San Francisco in 1854 as the first pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church, but his sympathy for the institution of slavery as national tensions rose prior to the American Civil War got him into trouble with the more liberal congregation of the city, and he was forced to resign.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Astle |first=John B. |title=Rev. Dr. W. A. Scott, A Southern Sympathizer |url=https://www.militarymuseum.org/RevScott.pdf |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |pages=149–156}}</ref>
Scott traveled to England to serve a congregation in Birmingham in 1861, returning to America to serve a New York congregation from 1863-1870. Returning again to San Francisco, he served as the first pastor of St. John's Presbyterian Church from 1870 until his death.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=James Grant |url=https://archive.org/details/AppletonsCyclopediaOfAmericanBiographyVol.5/page/n456/mode/1up |title=Appleton's cyclopaedia of American biography: SCOTT, William Anderson, clergyman |last2=Fiske |first2=John |publisher=D. Appleton |others=New York Public Library |year=1900 |location=New York |page=440 }}</ref> Scott helped found San Francisco Theological Seminary, and served on the faculty and board of directors of the institution.<ref name=":1" />
He wrote a number of books including ''Daniel, a Model for Young Men'' (1854), ''Achan in El Dorado'' (1855), ''Trade and Letters'' (1856), ''The Giant Judge'' (1858), ''The Bible and Politics'' (1859), ''Esther, The Hebrew-Persian Queen'' (1859), ''The Church in the Army, or the Four Centurions of the Gospels'' (1862), ''Moses and the Pentateuch'' (1863), and ''The Christ of the Apostles Creed'' (1867).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> He also wrote for and edited various church periodicals.<ref name=":0" />
He received honorary degrees from the University of Alabama in 1844 and the University of New York in 1872.<ref name=":1" />
Scott died in San Francisco on January 14, 1885.<ref name=":2" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * Clifford Merrill Drury (1967). ''William Anderson Scott, "No Ordinary Man"''. H. Clark Co.
== External links == * {{commons category-inline}}
{{PCUSA General Assembly moderators}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, William Anderson}} Category:1813 births Category:1885 deaths Category:19th-century American Presbyterian ministers Category:Writers from San Francisco Category:Writers from Tennessee Category:Presbyterians from Tennessee Category:Moderators of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America