William Lawrence Scott (July 2, 1828 – September 19, 1891) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, a prominent railroad executive, as well as a prominent horse breeder and horse racer.^[1]

William Lawrence Scott was born on July 2, 1828, in Washington, D.C., to Mary Ann Lewis (died 1879) and Colonel Robert Scott (U.S. Army) (1798–1835),^[2] of Virginia, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, who was detailed to the nation's capital at the time of his son's birth.^[3] Scott's Father died when he was only about seven years old. His elder brother, Robert Wainright Scott (1827–1866),^[4] was educated at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, served with distinction in the U.S. Civil War, and died while commander of the USS Saginaw at Acapulco, Mexico, on January 5, 1866.^[3][5]

His paternal grandfather was Gustavus Scott (1753–1800), a colonial lawyer and public official from Maryland who was appointed by President Washington the first Commissioner of Public Buildings for the City of Washington.^[3] His maternal grandfather was Col. Henry Lewis of Virginia, a Judge.^[2]

He attended the common schools and Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.

From 1840 to 1846, Scott served as a United States House of Representatives Page. After returning to Erie, Pennsylvania, with Charles Manning Reed, at the end of Reed's term in the U.S. Congress, he was employed as a shipping clerk at Reed's lakeside wharves for several years. He then spent some years traveling, working as a peddler, fisherman, and clerk until he was 23 years old.

Scott became a prosperous land owner, investor, and businessman engaged in shipping, coal mining, iron manufacturing, banking, and railroad construction through various partnerships and the firm of W. L. Scott & Co., which he established around 1871.^[3] One trade at the New York Stock Exchange was said to have earned him $2 million. His fortune was estimated at $15 million. He served as president of a number of railroad companies, including the New York, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk Railroad and the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad.^[3]

In 1853, he was married to Mary Matilda Tracy (d. 1898), eldest daughter of John A. Tracy, an attorney in Erie, and the sister of Frank F. Tracy, a prominent member of the New York Stock Exchange and one-time president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.^[3] Together, they had:^[1]

• Mary Scott (d. 1931), who married Richard H. Townsend (1850–1902), the President of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad^[14]
• Annie Wainwright Scott (1859–1928),^[15] who married Charles Hamot Strong (1853–1936),^[16] grandson of Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot, in 1881. Scott built the couple a 46-room mansion, completed in 1893, two years after his death.^[17]

Scott died from heart failure on September 19, 1891, in Newport, Rhode Island.^[1] His body was buried at Erie Cemetery.^[18] He was interred in a mausoleum designed by E.L. Pelton, an Erie architect, completed in 1889 at a cost of $40,000 (equivalent to $1,356,444 today).^[19]

At the time of his death, his wealth was estimated at $15,000,000 (equivalent to $508,666,667 today)^[1] to $25,000,000 (equivalent to $847,777,778 today).^[20] In December 1891, the value of the estate was estimated at no more than $7,000,000 (equivalent to $237,377,778 today), all of which was left to his family.^[21]