1723 in Scotland

Events from the year 1723 in Scotland.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Scotland: The Duke of Roxburghe

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas
• Solicitor General for Scotland – John Sinclair, jointly with Charles Binning

Judiciary

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

Events

• 8 June – The Honourable Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland is formed in Edinburgh by over 300 landowners, part of the Scottish Enlightenment.
• 11 November – 18 people drown in the River Tweed near Melrose when a ferry boat capsizes.

Births

• 3 February – Catherine Read, portrait painter (died 1778 at sea)
• c. 5 February (16 February NS) – John Witherspoon, Presbyterian minister, a Founding Father of the U.S. and President of the College of New Jersey (modern-day Princeton University; died 1794 in the United States)
• 23 February – William Chambers, architect (born in Gothenburg; died 1796 in London)
• 5 June (baptized; 16 June NS) – Adam Smith, economist and philosopher (died 1790)
• 20 June (1 July NS) – Adam Ferguson, philosopher and social historian (died 1816)
• 29 August – William Dalrymple, Church of Scotland minister (died 1814)
• Lady Anne Farquharson-MacKintosh, Jacobite (died 1784)
• Gavin Hamilton, neoclassical history painter, archaeologist and dealer (died 1798 in Rome)
• Francis Peacock, "father of Scottish country dance" (died 1807)

Deaths

• 3 April – George Watson, accountant and benefactor (born 1654)

The arts

• Mavisbank House in Midlothian is designed by William Adam in collaboration with his client, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, and construction begins; it is the first Palladian villa in Scotland.
• Cairney-born painter William Aikman settles in London as a portraitist under the patronage of John Campbell, Duke of Argyll.

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history

References