Claim: George Lewis Scott, a mathematician and literary figure, began his literary career in London alongside James Thomson and Andrew Millar and was a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning.
Evidence: George Lewis Scott (1708–1780) was a mathematician and literary figure who was tutor to the future George III from 1751 to 1755. A friend of the historian Edward Gibbon, the poet James Thomson and other members of the Georgian era literary world, he was described as 'perhaps the most accomplished of all amateur mathematicians who never gave their works to the world'. The three were members of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, one of a number of educational initiatives established in Scotland during the 1730s. He began his literary career as part of a London circle of expatriate Scots, among them the poet James Thomson and publisher Andrew Millar.