1778 in Scotland
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See also: | List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1778 in: Great Britain • Wales • Elsewhere |
Events from the year 1778 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
Judiciary
- Lord President of the Court of Session — Lord Arniston, the younger
- Lord Justice General — The Duke of Queensberry until 22 October; then from 23 October The Viscount Stormont
- Lord Justice Clerk — Lord Barskimming
Events
- 24 April — American Revolutionary War: North Channel Naval Duel: Scottish-born John Paul Jones in the USS Ranger (1777) captures HMS Drake (1777) in the North Channel off Carrickfergus.
- 15 May — 78th Regiment of Foot raised by Kenneth Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Seaforth, at Elgin.[1] In Summer, there is a brief "Mutiny of MacRaes" at Edinburgh.
- 28 May — Recruiting Act 1778, applying only to London and Scotland, provides for 3-year service in the British Army with a bounty of £3, and for the impressment as soldiers of "all able-bodied idle, and disorderly persons, who could not ... prove themselves to ... follow some lawful trade or employment".
- The Court of Session decides an appeal by slave Joseph Knight which effectively declares that slavery is illegal in Scotland.[2]
- First cotton mill in Scotland established at Penicuik.[3]
- Inhabited House Tax first imposed.
Births
- 9 January — Thomas Brown, metaphysician (died 1820 in London)
- 16 January — John Arbuthnott, 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott, peer and soldier (died 1860 in Bruges?)
- 24 March — Robert Fleming Gourlay, agriculturist in Canada and writer (died 1863)
- 18 April — Mary Bruce, Countess of Elgin, née Nisbet (died 1855)
- 18 May — Andrew Ure, doctor, industrial chemist and encylopaedist (died 1857 in London)
- 11 August — John Christian Schetky, marine painter (died 1874 in London)
- 1 November — Mary Brunton, novelist (died 1818)
- Robert Davidson, peasant poet (died 1855)
- Approximate date — Anna Maria Walker, née Patton, botanist (died 1852 in India)
Deaths
- 31 October — Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald, nobleman, army officer and politician (born 1691)
- 15 December — Catherine Read, portrait painter (born 1723)
- Rob Donn, Gaelic poet (born 1714)
- Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry (born 1698)
- George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal, Jacobite and Prussian soldier and diplomat (born1692/3?; died at Potsdam)
See also
References
- ^ MacLauchlan, Thomas, ed. (c. 1885). The Scottish Highlands: Highland Clans and Highland Regiments. Vol. 7 (1st ed.). Glasgow: A. Fullarton & Co. p. 524.
- ^ "Slavery, freedom or perpetual servitude? - the Joseph Knight case". National Archives of Scotland. Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
- ^ Cooke, Anthony (2010). The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Cotton Industry 1778-1914. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719080821.