Scottish settlement in Darien, Panama, abandoned.
September 11 1700
James Thomson, Scots author of "Rule Britannia", born.
September 6 1701
Deposed King James VII died at Château de Saint Germain-en-Laye, near Paris.
April 21 1703
Edinburgh Fire Brigade, one of the first in Scotland, formed.
October 3 1706
Last Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh before the Union with Westminster.
January 8 1707
Earl of Stair, held responsible for the massacre of Glencoe, died.
January 16 1707
Treaty of Union of Scottish and Westminster Parliaments ratified.
March 25 1707
Last meeting of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh - until 1999.
May 1 1707
Act of Union of English and Scottish parliaments proclaimed.
April 15 1710
Physicist William Cullen born.
April 26 1711
Philosopher David Hume born.
December 11 1712
William Cullen, first professor of chemistry at Glasgow University, born.
May 25 1713
John Stuart, Earl of Bute, Britain's first Scottish Prime Minister, born.
October 13 1713
Birth of Allan Ramsay, painter and son of Allan Ramsay the poet.
September 12 1715
Jacobites defeated government forces at Battle of Sheriffmuir.
November 13 1715
Battle of
Sherifmuir in which a force of Jacobites led by John, 6th Earl of Mar, fought an inconclusive battle against a Hanoverian force led by John, 2nd Duke of Argyll.
December 22 1715
James Stuart, the Old Pretender, arrived at Peterhead.
June 10 1719
Battle of Glenshiel, Jacobites with Spanish assistance, and government forces clashed.
September 1 1719
Marriage ceremony of Prince James
Francis Edward Stewart (the Old Pretender) and Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska. The Polish Princess had been kidnapped on her way to the original wedding, escaped and had married James by proxy earlier in 1719.
December 31 1720
Charles Edward Stewart born in Rome.
March 19 1721
Novelist Tobias Smollett born. Books included "The Adventures of Roderick Random" and "The Expedition of Humphrey
Clinker".
September 21 1722
Minister, historian, playwright and tutor to the Prince of Wales, John Home born. After the first performance of his play "Douglas", people asked "Whaur's yer Wully
Shakespeare noo?"
February 5 1723
John Witherspoon, clergyman, writer, President of Princeton University 1768-94, signatory to American Declaration of Independence 1776, born in Gifford, East Lothian.
June 5 1723
Adam Smith, author of "The Wealth of Nations" born Kirkcaldy.
June 20 1723
Adam Ferguson, philosopher, historian, "Father of Sociology" born Logierait, Perthshire.
June 22 1725
Malt Riots, Glasgow - against higher taxes imposed on Scottish malt.
May 25 1726
First circulating library opened in Edinburgh.
June 3 1726
James Hutton, founder of modern geology, born.
March 22 1727
Neil Gow, first of a famous family of Fiddle players and composers, born Strathearn, Ross & Cromarty.
April 31 1728
Royal Bank invents first overdraft, Wm Hogg overdraws by £1,000 (£66,000
at today's money).
July 3 1728
Architect Robert Adam born.
October 27 1728
James Cook, circum-navigator of the globe, born to Scottish parents in Yorkshire.
January 8 1729
Two women arrested in Edinburgh for wearing men's clothing.
March 20 1729
John Law, financier and founder of New Orleans, died aged about 57.
December 28 1734
Rob Roy McGregor died.
January 19 1736
Birth of James Watt, mathematical instrument maker, developed the steam engine, invented the condensor and copying machine.
October 29 1740
James Boswell, biographer of Dr Johnston, born at Blair's Land,
Parliament Square, Edinburgh.
August 28 1741
Earl of Wintoun died, aged 100.
April 28 1742
Henry Dundas, powerful politician, known as "Uncrowned King of Scotland, born.
October 16 1744
Poet Robert Fergusson died.
August 19 1745
Charles Edward Stuart, raises his standard at Glenfinnan, at the start of the '45 uprising.
September 14 1745
Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart, occupied Edinburgh.
September 21 1745
Charles Edward Stuart victorious at Battle of Prestonpans. The Jacobite army of just over 3,000 under Bonnie Prince Charlie
heavily defeated the English Royal forces led by Sir John Cope.
December 6 1745
Charles Edward Stewart's entry into Derby.
January 16 1746
Retreating Jacobite army defeated Hanoverian forces at Battle of Falkirk.
April 16 1746
Charles Edward Stewart defeated at Battle of Culloden.
April 21 1746
City of Glasgow held a cake-and-wine banquet to
celebrate the defeat of the Jacobites and offer the Duke of Cumberland the freedom of the city.
July 5 1746
British Linen Company(later Bank) received its Charter.
April 9 1747
Lord Lovat beheaded on Tower Hill for high treason.
July 6 1747
John Paul Jones, hero of the US Navy, born Kirkbean, Dumfries.
August 1 1747
Proscription Act introduced, banning tartan and the carrying of weapons.
March 10 1748
John Playfair, clergyman, geologist, mathematician, born.
September 5 1750
Poet Robert Fergusson born in Edinburgh.
May 14 1752
The "Appin Murder" in which Colin Campbell of Glenure (the Red Fox) was killed.
November 1 1753
Tremors from an earthquake in Lisbon are felt in Scotland.
May 14 1754
St Andrews Society of Golfers constituted.
March 4 1756
Sir Henry Raeburn, reknowned for painting the portraits of many of the citizens of Edinburgh, born.
September 21 1756
Road builder John McAdam born.
August 9 1757
Civil engineer Thomas Telford born.
May 5 1758
James Taylor who developed the steamboat was born.
January 25 1759
Robert Burns born Alloway.
January 31 1761
Lachlan MacQuarie, "Father of Australia" born Ulva.
May 16 1763
Biographer James Boswell met Samuel Johnson for the first time.
October 1 1763
Contract to construct the North Bridge, Edinburgh, signed.
January 1 1766
James Stewart the "Old Pretender" died.
April 17 1766
James Craig's winning entry for development of Edinburgh New Town was approved.
December 29 1766
Charles Macintosh, who patented waterproof fabric, born.
March 9 1770
Haggis was served on board Captain
James Cook's ship "Endeavour", anchored off New Zealand, in celebration of the birthday of a Scottish officer who was on board. (Captain Cook was born in Yorkshire of Scottish parents).
November 14 1770
James Bruce discovered the source of the Blue Nile in north-west Ethiopia.
May 14 1771
Industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen born.
August 15 1771
Novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott born.
September 10 1771
Birth of Mungo Park at Foulshiels, near Selkirk. He became an explorer and doctor who charted the course of the River Niger.
September 17 1771
Death of novelist Tobias Smollett whose novels included Roderick Random.
June 8 1772
Robert Stevenson, engineer, who constructed 18 lighthouses around Scotland, born Glasgow.
August 3 1773
Sir William
Kirkcaldy of Grange executed, after defending Edinburgh Castle on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots from May 1568 to May 1573.
September 15 1773
The "Hector" leaves Loch Broom, near Ullapool, to sail to
Pictou, Nova Scotia, carrying emigrants escaping from the "Clearances".
October 23 1773
Birth of Francis Jeffrey, first editor of the "Edinburgh Review".
June 3 1774
Poet Robert Tannahill born in Paisley.
October 8 1774
Rev Henry Duncan, founder of the first savings bank, born in the Manse at Lochrutton.
October 17 1774
Poet Robert Fergusson died.
March 9 1776
"Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith published
August 25 1776
Philosopher David Hume died.
September 23 1779
Battle of Flamborough Head in which Scots-born John Paul Jones fought an engagement
against the British navy. His ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard sank but he boarded and captured HMS Serapis.
October 4 1780
African explorer Alexander Laing, born.
December 11 1781
David Brewster, inventor of the kaleidoscope born.
July 1 1782
Proscription Act Repealed, thus allowing again the wearing of tartan and the carrying of weapons (banned as a result of the 1745 Uprising in support
of Bonnie Prince Charlie).
October 7 1782
Birth of Charles McLaren, one of the founders of the "Scotsman" newspaper.
January 1 1783
Glasgow Chamber of Commerce incorporated.
January 27 1783
Glasgow Herald newspaper first published.
October 5 1785
Balloon flight by Italian aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi from Heriot's School, Edinburgh to Ceres in Fife.
January 22 1788
Robert Byron (later Lord
Byron) born. He moved to Aberdeen at the age of four and attended Aberdeen Grammar School.
January 31 1788
Charles Edward Stewart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie" died.
October 30 1789
Writer Michael Scott who wrote novels for Blackwood's Magazine, was born in Glasgow.
July 8 1790
Forth and Clyde Canal between the rivers Forth and Clyde, 22 years in the making, completed. At the official
opening on 27 July a hogshead of water from the River Forth in the east was transported along the canal and poured into the river Clyde at Bowling.
May 16 1791
James Boswell's "Life of Johnson" published.
January 2 1792
Thomas Muir, lawyer and political activist, arrested and charged with sedition.
March 3 1792
Robert Adam, architect, died.
April 27 1794
James Bruce , explorer and author of "Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile" died.
January 17 1795
Duddingston Curling Society became the first curling club in the world to be
formally organised.
May 19 1795
Death in Auchinleck of James Boswell, biographer of Dr Johnston.
December 4 1795
Essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle, best known for his "French Revolution" born
in Ecclefechan.
January 13 1796
John Anderson, founder of "Andersonian Institute" (now Strathclyde University) died.
October 24 1796
Artist David Roberts born in Edinburgh.
December 18 1780
Society of Antiquaries founded.
August 27 1784
First balloon ascent in Britain by James Tytler, Edinburgh.
March 5 1787
Deacon William Brodie executed for theft - on a grand scale.
October 14 1788
First steamboat tested on Dalswinton Loch.
March 5 1790
Flora Macdonald, who helped to save Prince Charles Edward Stewart during his flight after the defeat at the Battle of Culloden, died in Kingsburgh, Skye
(in the same bed in which Bonnie Prince Charlie had slept during his escape).
20 October 1792
Colin McIver, better known as Colin Campbell, was born in Glasgow. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars, the Opium Wars in
China, the Crimean War (winning the Battle of Alma and holding the "thin red line" at Balaclava) and suppressed the Indian Mutiny at Lucknow, rising to be Field Marshall in 1862.
January 9 1799
Income tax introduced for the first time.
April 15 1799
Prof Joseph Black chemist, researcher, teacher, first to identify carbon dioxide, died
