John Humphrey Scott in the original death register

Chester County’s original Register of Deaths, volume 1, printed page 237, records J. Humphrey Scott as a married farmer who died at East Fallowfield on 22 October 1896. The recorded cause is paralysis, with a final illness lasting two months. It gives his burial place as Octorara and burial date as 27 October 1896. The entry was recorded on 1 January 1897. The distinctive name, locality and death date support identifying this entry with the project’s John Humphrey Scott. The register reports age 81. His preferred birth date, 5 December 1815, would make him 80 on the recorded death date. Both readings are retained without changing his preferred birth date. The birthplace cell has a dash, and the parents’ cells contain no names. A compiled genealogy’s USA birthplace should therefore not be attributed to this original entry. The record does not establish his parents, name his wife, prove a religious affiliation, or diagnose a modern medical cause beyond the recorded term paralysis. The county’s published death-register index, PDF page 408, agrees on the name, age, occupation, death date, place, cause and Octorara burial. It is a derivative finding aid, not a second independent death report. The original was inspected in the county’s public viewer at scan 190 of 236. Five screenshots preserve the overview, identity fields, death and burial fields, occupation and date, and column headings. No identified portrait was found.