Hugh Scott of Gala


Major Hugh Scott later Scott-Gordon, 9th Laird of [Old Gala Water|Gala House|Gala], was a 19th-century Scottish landowner, antiquarian and British Army officer.

Family background

Members of the minor Scottish nobility, his family became barons of Gala in 1640 by the marriage of Walter Scott of Deuchar and Jean Pringle, daughter and heiress of Sir James Pringle of Smailholm and Gala.
Born on 9 December 1822 at Bellie near Elgin, he was the eldest surviving son of John Scott, 8th Laird of Gala by his wife Magdalen née Hope, youngest daughter of Sir Archibald Hope of Craighall and Pinkie, 9th Baronet.
A cousin of Sir Walter Scott and great-nephew of Admiral Sir George Scott, his grandfather was Colonel Hugh Scott of Scala, and Professor Alexander Monro of Craiglockhart was a great-grandfather.

Career

In family tradition, Scott was commissioned into the 92nd Regiment of Foot becoming a Captain, then promoted Major he served with the Dumfries, Roxburgh and Selkirkshire Militia.
Upon his father's death in 1840, Scott succeeded as the 9th Laird and inherited the Gala estate, near Galashiels, Roxburghshire.
In 1853 Scott was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1872 he commissioned Edinburgh architect David Bryce to redesign Gala House in the Scots baronial style. Completed in 1876, Gala remained the family home until 1976 before being demolished in 1983.
Old Gala House is now a museum.

Marriage and descendants

In 1857 Scott married Elizabeth Isabella Johnstone-Gordon, eldest daughter and heiress of Captain Charles Kinnaird Johnstone-Gordon of Craig and Kincardine, and died at Hyères in France on 19 December 1877, leaving three sons and a daughter: