Events from the year 1790 in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Incumbents

Law officers

Lord Advocate , body = , insignia = Crest of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg , insigniasize = 110px , image = File:Official Portrait of Dorothy Bain QC.png , incumbent = Dorothy Bain KC , incumbentsince = 22 June 2021 , appointer = Monarch on the advice ...

–

Robert Dundas of Arniston Robert Dundas of Arniston (6 June 1758 – 17 June 1819) was a Scottish judge. Dundas served as Solicitor General for Scotland between 1784 and 1789 and as Lord Advocate from 1789 to 1801. He sat as Member of Parliament for was M.P. for Edinbu ...

Solicitor General for Scotland , body = , insignia = Crest of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg , insigniasize = 110px , image = File:Official Portrait of Ruth Charteris QC.png , incumbent = Ruth Charteris KC , incumbentsince = 22 June 2021 , department = Crown Office and ...

– Robert Blair

Judiciary

Lord President of the Court of Session The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. The L ...

– Lord Succoth *

Lord Justice General Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

– The Viscount Stormont *

Lord Justice Clerk The Lord Justice Clerk is the second most senior judge in Scotland, after the Lord President of the Court of Session. Originally ''clericus justiciarie'' or Clerk to the Court of Justiciary, the counterpart in the criminal courts of the Lord ...

– Lord Braxfield

Events

* 16 June– 28 July –

British general election This is a list of United Kingdom general elections (elections for the UK House of Commons) since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, ...

gives Pitt an increased majority. *

28 June Events Pre-1600 * 1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul at the battle of Antioch. * 1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II. * 1461 – ...

–

Forth and Clyde Canal The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allo ...

opened. * October –

Pladda Lighthouse Pladda Lighthouse is an active 18th century lighthouse situated at the southern end of the island of Pladda in western Scotland. The lighthouse dates from 1790 and was designed by Thomas Smith. It was the first light on the Clyde to be commissio ...

first illuminated. *

Balblair distillery Balblair distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery located in Edderton, Ross-shire, Scotland. Founded in 1790, the distillery was rebuilt in 1895 by the designer Charles C Doig to be closer to the Edderton Railway Station on the Inverness an ...

Edderton Edderton ( gd, Eadardan) is a village near Tain, lying on the shores of the Dornoch Firth, Easter Ross and is in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has approximately 388 inhabitants. It is the location of the Balblair Distillery, and of t ...

founded. * Caerlee Mill at

Innerleithen Innerleithen ( gd, Inbhir Leitheann) is a civil parish and a small town in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders. It was formerly in the historic county of Peeblesshire or Tweeddale. Etymology The name "Innerleithen" comes ...

completed, the oldest woollen mill in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

. * New

Ardkinglas Castle Ardkinglas House is a Category A listed country house on the Ardkinglas Estate in Argyll, Scotland. The estate lies on the eastern shore of Loch Fyne, and the house is located close to the village of Cairndow. Dating back to the 14th century and ...

built. * Construction of

Gosford House Gosford House is a neoclassical country house around northeast of Longniddry in East Lothian, Scotland, on the A198 Aberlady Road, in of parkland and coast. It is the family seat of the Charteris family, the Earls of Wemyss and March. It was t ...

to the design of

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...

for

Francis Wemyss-Charteris Francis Wemyss Charteris (21 October 172324 August 1808) was a Scottish landowner who claimed to be 7th Earl of Wemyss. Life Charteris was the second son of James Wemyss, 5th Earl of Wemyss and his wife Janet, daughter of the very wealthy Colon ...

is begun. * The mineral element

strontium Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is ex ...

is discovered near

Strontian Strontian (; gd, Sròn an t-Sìthein) is the main village in Sunart, an area in western Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, on the A861 road. Prior to 1975 it was part of Argyllshire. It lies on the north shore of Loch Sunart, close to the head of the ...

by chemists

Adair Crawford Adair Crawford Royal Society#Fellows, FRS FRSE (174829 July 1795), a chemist and physician, was a pioneer in the development of calorimetry, calorimetric methods for measuring the specific heat capacity of substances and the heat of chemical rea ...

and William Cruickshank. * Approximate date –

Whaligoe Whaligoe is a small port which was prospected by Thomas Telford in 1786 during his tour of northern fishing harbours for the British Fishing Society. His judgement of the place was that it was a "terrible spot". However, undaunted, Captain Da ...

steps cut.

Births

3 March Events Pre-1600 * 473 – Gundobad (nephew of Ricimer) nominates Glycerius as emperor of the Western Roman Empire. * 724 – Empress Genshō abdicates the throne in favor of her nephew Emperor Shōmu, Shōmu who becomes emperor of Japa ...

– Robert Story,

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

minister and writer (died 1859) *

25 October Events Pre-1600 * 285 (or 286) – Execution of Saints Crispin and Crispinian during the reign of Diocletian, now the patron saints of leather workers, curriers, and shoemakers. * 473 – Emperor Leo I acclaims his grandson Leo II ...

–

Robert Stirling Robert Stirling (25 October 1790 – 6 June 1878) was a Scottish clergyman and engineer. He invented the Stirling engine and was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2014. Early life Robert Stirling was born at Fatal Fiel ...

, Church of Scotland minister and inventor of the

Stirling engine A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas (the ''working fluid'') between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work. More specif ...

(died

1878 Events January–March * January 5 – Russo-Turkish War – Battle of Shipka Pass IV: Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire. * January 9 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy. * January 17 – Battle o ...

) *

29 October Events Pre-1600 * 312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand '' adventus'' in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber an ...

– David Napier, marine engineer (died 1869 in London) * James Clow, Presbyterian minister and settler in Melbourne (died 1861 in Australia) * Approximate date –

Mary Diana Dods Mary Diana Dods (1790–1830) was a Scottish writer of books, stories and other works who adopted a male identity. Most of her works appeared under the pseudonym David Lyndsay. In private life she used the name Walter Sholto Douglas. This may hav ...

, writer as "David Lyndsay", later known as "Walter Sholto Douglas" (died 1830 in France)

Deaths

* 5 February –

William Cullen William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was Dav ...

, physician and chemist (born 1710) * 4 March –

Flora MacDonald Flora MacDonald ( Gaelic: ''Fionnghal nic Dhòmhnaill'', 1722 - 5 March 1790) was a member of Clan Macdonald of Sleat, best known for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Her famil ...

, Jacobite (born 1722) * 17 July –

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...

, economist and philosopher (born

1723 Events January–March * January 25 – British pirate Edward Low intercepts the Portuguese ship ''Nostra Signiora de Victoria''. After the Portuguese captain throws his treasure of 11,000 gold coins into the sea rather than s ...

) * 24 November – Robert Henry, historian and Church of Scotland minister (born

1718 Events January – March * January 7 – In India, Sufi rebel leader Shah Inayat Shaheed from Sindh who had led attacks against the Mughal Empire, is beheaded days after being tricked into meeting with the Mughals to discus ...

)

The arts

* Catholic priest Alexander Geddes writes the poem ''Linton: a Tweedside Pastoral, Carmen Seculare pro Gallica Gente'' in praise of the French Revolution. * Kirkmichael musician Robert Petrie publishes several Highland music pieces with "Mrs. Small of Dirnanean" in their title. The compositions are published in "Petrie's Collection of Strathspey Reels & County Dances".

References

{{Years in Scotland , state=collapsed

1790s in Scotland