William was a child from his fathers first marriage.

Apparently, because of religious persecution, the Scott family in Virginia decided to move to SC, where there were no religious prohibitions enacted into law in an effort to regulate their Baptist faith. This family settled on the Pee Dee River in SC and became ardent members of the historic Pee Dee Baptist Church there.

 

While the Scott family enjoyed economic prosperity and more religious freedom than had experienced in VA, they still felt somewhat restrained in their worship privileges. Because of the strong moral stance and vocal opposition to church taxes. they moved to SC, where legal enactments against the church had not been passed.

While there were no laws against Baptist worship in SC, there were many prejudices expressed by the local citizenry against Baptist people. They were not only resented but were taunted by peer pressure as other citizens tried to drive them out of the area because it upset the status quo. After Richard Curtis's home was burned down by the opposition, many, the Scott's among them, picked up their possessions and moved across the mountain.

The travel party consisted of some three dozen people led by Richard Curtis, Sr., at Sycamore Shoals came upon another group of people who were planning to go west and settle in Tennessee between the Cumberland Mountains and the Tennessee River, then a part of NC. These parties has essentially the same experiences at the same time as the founders of Nashville and the travelers to the lower Mississippi Valley. They built large barges at the same place at the same time and floated down the french Broad into the Holston River, down the Holston into the Tennessee river, down the Tennessee in to the Ohio. They were at Sycamore Shoals in eastern TN at the same time and were moving westward somewhat together where they hoped to find greater opportunity for themselves and their families. This party of about three dozen had found it necessary to take all of their possessions - cattle, horses, seed corn, and other necessary items on their barges with them, since they were floating southward when they arrived at the Ohio River. These parties endured the same hardships at Muscle Shoals, the same kind of Indian attacks, and the same deprivations that any travel party at that time would have experienced. they, too, had to endure a smallpox surge, but they succeeded in getting through to carry out their convictions and mission. They continued to ride down the Ohio and the Mississippi until they reached Coles Creek, a freshwater spring-fed creek, which assured them of an ample supply of fresh water. It was just north of the historic town of Natchez, which was the Spanish capital at that time. It is reasonable to believe that it had never occurred to them, as they were seeking relief from hardships in religious privileges on the Eastern Seaboard, that they would end up in Spanish territory where Natchez being the capital, would be placed under greater restrictions of worship there by the Catholics than they had ever experienced in the eastern states. Governor Gayoso, who was the Spanish territorial governor, let it be understood right off that Catholics would place legal restrictions against these Baptists who had moved into their territory, and that assemblies of more than nine people would be forbidden. Preachers would not be authorized to perform normal ministerial rites and ceremonies, which ministers of the gospel were usually granted. In about two years time though the Spanish were backing out, ceding their Mississippi territory to the American government, and the federal government was negotiating with France for the purchase of the vast acreage of land across the Mississippi River which was finally consummated in 1802 as the Louisiana Purchase.

While now living safely in the Mississippi territory and some years before it would become a state, William Jr's father died and the father had remarried. This second time it was to a much younger wife. A son was born of this couple named Zacharias James Scott, (see continued story under Zacharias biography). William had moved up the Big Black River into central Mississippi, where he owned and operated a huge plantation as well as river boats on the Big Black River, which would move the produce of his plantation to Natchez for market. He also operated Scotts Ferry at a place called Vernon on the Big Black River (near present-day Flora, MS), where is also served as a postmaster. He was a man of vast land holdings, wealth, and influence. Having no children of his own adopted his half brother Zacharias. It was during the battle of Vicksburg that his plantation was commandeered, the buildings confiscated, and William Scott apparently killed and buried somewhere on the grounds without a monument. It can be assumed that he was killed by the Yankees as he objected to their devastation because no word has ever leaked out telling of his ultimate fate at the hands of the invading army. William just seemed to fade away into thin air. Though efforts to locate his grave site, no one has succeeded (still as of 05/04).