William Scott, Baron Stowell (1745–1836)
William Scott, Baron Stowell, was born on 17 October 1745 to a coal-trading family in Durham, England. A graduate of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he worked as a tutor before transitioning to a legal career with a specialization in admiralty and ecclesiastical law. In 1798 he was appointed judge of the High Court of Admiralty, a post he would hold for thirty years. Judge Scott carried on a friendly correspondence with Joseph Story, and American practitioners of international law often referenced his legal decisions.
David J. Bederman, Review of Sir William Scott, Lord Stowell: Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, 1798–1828, by Henry J. Bourguignon, The American Journal of International Law, Volume 82, Number 4 (1988), 854–58.
R.A. Melikan, "Scott, William, Baron Stowell (1745–1836)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008).