1780 in Scotland

Events from the year 1780 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Henry Dundas;
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Murray

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
• Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

Events

• 31 May – James Watt patents a copying machine.
• 18 December – the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is formed.
• Dalmally Bridge built.
• Böd of Gremista built in Lerwick.
• Approximate date
• James Small produces a two-horse swing plough using Carron Company iron.
• Kilcalmonell Parish Church at Clachan, Kintyre, is rebuilt.

Births

• 26 February – Alexander Allan, shipowner (died 1854)
• 17 March – Thomas Chalmers, Free Church leader (died 1847)
• 3 April – Walter Newall, architect and civil engineer (died 1863)
• 10 October – John Abercrombie, physician and philosopher (died 1844)
• 16 November – Robert Archibald Smith, composer (died 1829)
• 5 December – Patrick Sellar, lawyer, factor and sheep farmer instrumental in the Highland Clearances (died 1851)
• 26 December – Mary Somerville, née Fairfax, mathematician (died 1872 in Naples)
• David Buchan, naval officer and Arctic explorer (lost at sea 1838)
• Colquhoun Grant, British Army officer (died 1829 in Aachen)
• William Laird, shipbuilder (died 1841 in Birkenhead)
• Robert Pinkerton, Bible missionary (died 1859 in Reigate)
• Andrew Wilson, landscape painter (died 1848)

Deaths

• 7 October – Patrick Ferguson, British Army officer and designer of the Ferguson rifle (born 1744; killed in Battle of Kings Mountain)
• 26 November – Sir James Steuart Denham, economist (born 1712)

Sport

• Royal Aberdeen Golf Club founded as the 'Society of Golfers at Aberdeen'.

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history

References