R. Taylor Scott

Robert Taylor Scott (1834 – August 6, 1897) was a Virginia lawyer and Confederate officer who was later three times elected to serve as Attorney General of Virginia.

From Fauquier County, Virginia, Scott graduated from the University of Virginia in 1856, studied law under his father, Robert Eden Scott, and was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1857.

He married Fanny Scott Carter, who later became president of the Black Horse Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her father Richard Henry Carter was major of the 8th Virginia infantry. The Scotts had nine children.

When Virginia seceded, Robert Scott recruited a company known as the Beauregard Rifles, and served under local attorney General Eppa Hunton. Rising to the rank of major, Scott served on the staff of Confederate General George E. Pickett during the Civil War. His father-in-law (also a Confederate officer) survived the war, but his father, however, died defending the family's property from Union deserters in 1862.

After the war, Scott entered into a private legal practice with James Vass Brooke, which lasted until 1894. Brooke had served as Fauquier County's delegate to the Virginia General Assembly at the outbreak of the Civil War.

After the restoration of civil rights to Confederate veterans, Scott won election to the State Convention, and in 1870 became Warrenton's mayor. In 1881 he won election as a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly, representing Loudoun and Fauquier counties. Thomas Smith succeeded him in 1883.

Scott was elected Attorney General in 1889, succeeding Rufus A. Ayers, and won re-election twice. Scott litigated the state debt, and negotiated what came to be known as the Olcutt settlement. He was also active in his Episcopal Church.

Scott died in office in 1897, and was buried at Warrenton, Virginia. His papers are at the Virginia Historical Society.