1801 in Scotland

Events from the year 1801 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas of Arniston; then Charles Hope
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Blair

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Succoth
• Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Eskgrove

Events

• 1 January – legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 10 March – the first British census is carried out (under terms of the Census Act 1800), with the Scottish counts undertaken by schoolmasters. The population of Scotland is determined to be 1,608,420.
• 16 March – Edinburgh music teacher Anne Gunn is granted the first British patent for a board game, designed as a music teaching aid.
• 4 June – Soldiers of the Ross and Cromarty Rangers fire on a mob in Aberdeen celebrating the King's birthday, killing two.
• 18 July – Crinan Canal opened (although incomplete).
• First complete Bible translation into Scottish Gaelic, Am Bìoball Gàidhlig, is published.
• Dundee Courier & Argus first published.
• John Cary publishes A New Map of Scotland.
• Second Elgin Academy school building (occupied in modern times by Moray College) constructed.
• Edinburgh town council resolves to drain The Meadows.
• John Crabbie of Leith begins to deal in ginger.
• Chivas Brothers open a grocery store in Aberdeen which will blend Chivas Regal whisky.

Births

• 4 January – James Giles, landscape painter (died 1870)
• 14 January – Jane Welsh Carlyle, née Jane Baillie Welsh, letter-writer (died 1866 in London)
• 2 February – George Maclean, colonial governor (died 1847 in Cape Coast)
• 31 May – Robert Rankin, timber merchant and shipowner (died 1870 in England)
• 7 June – Charles Cowan, papermaker and Radical politician (died 1889)
• 24 June – David Haggart, thief and murderer (hanged 1821)
• 4 July – James Johnstone, Liberal politician (died 1888)
• 21 August – Benjamin Boyd, settler in New South Wales (probably killed 1851 ln Guadalcanal)
• 31 August – William Downe Gillon, Whig politician (died 1846)
• 7 November – Robert Dale Owen, social reformer (died 1877 in the United States)
• Alexander Thom, almanac editor (died 1879 in Ireland)

Deaths

• 14 February – Robert Paterson ("Old Mortality"), stonemason (born 1715)
• 28 March – Sir Ralph Abercromby, general (born 1734; died in Egypt)
• 10 May – Richard Gall, poet (born 1776)
• 30 May – John Millar, philosopher (born 1735)
• 11 October – John Donaldson, miniature painter (born 1737; died in London)
• 25 December – Andrew Lumisden, Jacobite (born 1720)
• Jean Glover, poet and singer (born 1758; died in Ireland)

The arts

• 21 July – Greenock Burns Club is established to honour the memory of poet Robert Burns (died 1796) and Poems Ascribed to Robert Burns is published.
• James Hogg publishes Scottish Pastorals, Poems, Songs.

See also

• 1801 in Ireland

References