Thomas Scott
Thomas Scott was born in 1747 at Braytoft in Lincolnshire and in 1772 to become ordained as an Anglican priest at the age of 25. Scott was first a curate in Buckinghamshire in 1772.
He was originally appointed to the adjacent parishes of Stoke Goldington and Weston Underwood. From 1775 to 1777 Scott served as curate of nearby Ravenstone by virtue of a ‘swap’ with the curate there.
During this period, Scott began a friendship and correspondence with the hymn writer John Newton who was curate of neighbouring Olney. This instigated the examination of his conscience and study of the scriptures that were to convert him into an evangelical Christian, a conversion he related in his spiritual autobiography The Force of Truth published in 1779.
In 1781, Scott transferred to the curacy of Olney, Newton having gone to London, and in 1785 Scott also moved to London to take up a post as a hospital chaplain at the Lock Hospital for syphilis sufferers. While in London he started publishing the Commentary On the Whole Bible that was to make his name.
Scott was, with Newton, was one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), and its first Secretary.
For more information on CMS use this link www.cms-uk.org.