Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott Bt
Portrait by Thomas Lawrence, c. 1820s
Born	15 August 1771 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	21 September 1832(1832-09-21) (aged 61) Abbotsford, Roxburghshire, Scotland
Occupation	Historical novelist Poet Advocate Sheriff-Depute Clerk of Session
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Military Service
Allegiance	Great Britain
Service/branch	British Militia
Years of service	1797–1802
Rank	Quartermaster
Unit	Royal Edinburgh Volunteer Light Dragoons
Battles/wars	French Revolutionary Wars
Period	19th century
Literary movement	Romanticism
Spouse	Charlotte Carpenter (Charpentier)
Children	5
Signature

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet FRSE FSAScot (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy (1817), Waverley (1814), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), along with the narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He had a major impact on European and American literature.

As an advocate, judge, and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with his daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh's Tory establishment, active in the Highland Society, long time a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1827–1829).^[1] His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of European Romanticism. He became a baronet of Abbotsford in the County of Roxburgh, Scotland, on 22 April 1820; the title became extinct upon his son's death in 1847.