1717 in Scotland

Events from the year 1717 in Scotland.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Scotland: The Duke of Roxburghe

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Baronet
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Sir James Stewart, Bt (possibly jointly with Robert Dundas)

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord North Berwick
• Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Grange

Events

• 1 January – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.
• February – as part of the Triple Alliance treaty between Britain and France, James Stuart leaves France and seeks refuge with the Pope.
• July – Indemnity Act frees most Jacobites from imprisonment. The Clan Gregor are specifically excluded.
• Horse post introduced between Glasgow, Edinburgh and points north.
• Carrbridge Packhorse Bridge built.
• Drummonds Bank is founded in London by Scottish goldsmith Andrew Drummond.
• Approximate date – the seminary at Scalan begins to train Roman Catholic priests.

Births

• 28 February – Alexander Colville, 7th Lord Colville of Culross, British Royal Navy admiral (died 1770)
• 28 June – Matthew Stewart, mathematician (died 1785)
• 29 June (bapt.) – James Robertson, British Army officer, governor of New York (died 1788 in London)
• July – William Duncan, natural philosopher and classicist (died 1760)
• 10 October – Sir Archibald Edmonstone, 1st Baronet, politician (died 1807 in London)
• 3 November – Thomas Miller, Lord Glenlee, judge and politician (died 1789)

Deaths

• 19 March – John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, royalist (born 1636)
• August – William Cochrane, Member of the Parliament of Great Britain (born after 1659)
• November – John Slezer, military engineer and topographical artist (born before 1650 perhaps in Germany)
• William Boyd, 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock, nobleman

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1717 in Great Britain

References