He served as captain of a band of lancers in the English army in the Netherlands, and in 1588 was knighted for his services. In 1597 he commanded a ship in the expedition to the Azores.
In 1601, Scott was implicated in Essex's Rebellion but succeeded in clearing himself, and in the same year was a parliamentary candidate for Kent in 1601. He was unsuccessful on this first attempt, but was elected its MP in the Parliament of 1604 and for Maidstone in the Addled Parliament of 1614.
In November 1603 Anne of Denmark appointed him as one of the advisors for the administration of her English jointure lands.[2] Scott was an early investor in the Colony of Virginia. He became a member of the Council for Virginia in 1607, the year when that colony was re-established, subscribing £75, and was a councillor of the Virginia Company of London in 1609.
He died in 1616 and was buried at Brabourne in Kent.
Secondly, before 17 September 1599[citation needed], he married Katherine Smythe, widow of Sir Rowland Hayward, Lord Mayor of London, and daughter of Thomas Smythe (d.1591). She was baptised Katherine Smith on 6 Dec 1561 at All Hallows Lombard Street, City of London and is recorded in the Smythe pedigree taken during the Heraldic Visitation of London in 1568 and the Visitation of Kent in 1619 as the daughter of Thomas Smythe and Alice Judde. Without issue.