John Morin was born probably in 1730 in New York City, New York, United States, the only child of John Scott, a New York merchant, and a great-grandson of Sir John Scott, baronet, of Ancrum, Roxburghshire, Scotland. His mother was Marian, youngest daughter of Pierre and Marie (Jamain) Morin, Huguenots from La Rochelle.
After graduating at Yale College in 1746, John Morin Scott studied law in the office of the elder William Smith.
Scott was admitted to the New York bar in 1752.
In the celebrated case of Cunningham vs. Forsey (1764), as counsel for the respondent, he successfully maintained that no appeal in questions of fact lay from the provincial supreme court to the governor in council. In this position he was actively supported by Chief Justice Daniel Horsmanden, and his stand, an eminently popular one, was subsequently affirmed on appeal.
Scott also had extensive holdings in the Schoharie Valley and Dutchess County. He was actively associated with William Livingston and the younger William Smith in literary contributions in behalf of the Whig Presbyterian cause in New York. These appeared in the Independent Reflector (1752 - 53) and in the "Watch Tower" column of the New York Mercury (1754 - 55). His bill for the establishment of King's College upon non-sectarian principles was printed and circulated in 1754 throughout the province.
Other contributions of these collaborators include the publication in 1757 of A Review of the Military Operations in North America 1753-1756, in defense of Governor Shirley of Massachusetts (1801), and the series known as the "American Whig" which appeared in the columns of James Parker's New York Gazette (1768 - 69). He served as alderman of New York City, 1756-61.
On the eve of the Revolution, Scott was listed among the more extreme agitators and was not sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774. The day of the adoption of the constitution he was appointed a member of the committee to prepare a plan for establishing the new government, and on its adoption, May 8, he was made a member of the Council of Safety. The week before, he had been elected to the new supreme court but, defeated by John Jay for the chief justiceship, declined to serve. In the gubernatorial election of the same year Scott ran against George Clinton and Philip Schuyler and polled a number of votes from the middle districts of the state, although the ballots of the southern counties gave the election to Clinton.
He later served with General Heath in the lower part of West Chester, but resigned in the spring of 1777 to become state senator, in which position he continued until 1782. He served also as a member of the Continental Congress from 1779 to 1783. As one of the delegates from New York to settle the boundary dispute with Vermont, he opposed the appointment by Congress of a court of commissioners to act in the matter and favored quick action to check the claims of the smaller states.
In 1778 he was appointed secretary of state, in which office he was succeeded upon his death in 1784 by his son, Lewis Allaire.
John Morin Scott was one of the most active practitioners of the law in the American colonies; his docket for the April term, 1767, of the New York Supreme court of judicature contained 114 cases. Scott is known to have been the sole author of the significant essay against the Stamp Act, signed "Freeman, " and he was one of the organizers of the New York Sons of Liberty. He was the New York's first Secretary of State, served as an active delegate to the Continental Congress. Despite the pressure of his political activities, Scott was drawn into the military conflict, participating in the battle of Long Island as a brigadier-general.
In law, letters, and politics, early in his career, Scott definitely aligned himself with the Whig cause. He was a leader of the radical party in the provincial congresses of New York in 1775-77 and of the democratic forces in the constitutional convention of the latter year.
John Adams described him as "an elegant seat" and the proprietor as "a sensible man, but not very polite, " who was reputed to be "one of the readiest speakers upon the continent".
About 1752 Scott married Helena, daughter of Captan Petrus and Helena (Hoogland) Rutgers, of New York City. A son and a daughter survived him, two sons having died young.
