James Scott (d.1796), sergeant of marines, was a member of the marine detachment in the First Fleet, and arrived in New South Wales as one of three sergeants in the Prince of Wales. He had had little formal education but was already an experienced and competent non-commissioned officer when the fleet sailed.

Scott and his family embarked in H.M.S. Gorgon in Sydney on 31 October 1791. They sailed for England on 18 December and all survived the voyage despite the illness and deaths on board. Scott was discharged at Spithead on 21 June 1792 and from next October until March 1796 he served as a squad sergeant or second squad sergeant on shore at Portsmouth at £20 a year. He died towards the end of March 1796 and was buried at Portsmouth on 2 April.

Scott is chiefly notable because of his diary, which covers the period from May 1787 to May 1792, and is one of the few surviving contemporary accounts of the first settlement of Australia by a member of his class. It was published in Sydney in 1963 under the title Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay, 1787-1792. Closed tear in dustjacket. #271015