1804 in Scotland

Events from the year 1804 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Charles Hope; then Sir James Montgomery, Bt
• 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, then Lord Granton

Events

• January – founders on patrol off Scotland, apparently striking the Inchcape rock, with the loss of all 491 on board.
• 5 April – High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at Possil.
• 19 August – St Peter's Church, Aberdeen, is dedicated as the city's first purpose-built post-Reformation Roman Catholic church.
• 14 September – lighthouse on Inchkeith, designed by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson, is first illuminated.
• The Glasgow Herald is first published under this title.
• Galashiels Baptist Church is established as an independent Baptist congregation.

Births

• 7 January – George Deas, judge (died 1887)
• 13 January – John Pringle Nichol, scientist (died 1859)
• 1 March – John Henderson, ecclesiastical architect (died 1862)
• 22 March – James Smart, chief constable (died 1870)
• 20 June – John Forrest, military doctor (died 1865 in England)
• 15 July – Jane Stirling, pianist, student of Chopin (died 1859)
• 18 September – John Steell, sculptor (died 1891)
• 3 November – Charles Baillie, Lord Jerviswoode, judge (died 1879)
• Robert Davidson, inventor (died 1894)
• Alexander McKay, heavyweight bare-knuckle boxer (died of injury sustained in fight 1830 in England)
• James Mackay, politician in New Zealand (died 1875 in New Zealand)
• George Thompson, shipowner and politician (died 1895)

Deaths

• 11 January – James Tytler, editor of Encyclopædia Britannica (born 1745; died in the United States)
• 26 July – Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet, politician (born c.1729)
• 4 August – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, admiral (born 1731; died just south of the border en route to Edinburgh)
• 23 October – David Rae, Lord Eskgrove, judge (born 1724)

The arts

• John Galt's poem The Battle of Largs is published anonymously, the author's first published work.
• David Wilkie paints Pitlessie Fair and William Chalmers-Bethune, his wife Isabella Morison and their Daughter Isabella.

See also

• 1804 in Ireland

References