Events from the year 1723 in Scotland.

Incumbents

* Secretary of State for Scotland: The Duke of Roxburghe

Law officers

Lord Advocate His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...

– Robert Dundas *

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 ...

– John Sinclair, jointly with

Charles Binning Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

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 North Berwick *

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 ...

– Lord Ilay *

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 Grange

Events

* 8 June – The Honourable Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland is formed in Edinburgh by over 300 landowners, part of the Scottish Enlightenment. * 11 November – 18 people drown in the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the ...

near Melrose when a ferry boat capsizes.

Births

3 February Events Pre-1600 *1112 – Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence, marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states. * 1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire. *1488 – B ...

–

Catherine Read Catherine Read (or Katherine) was a Scottish artist. Born in the early 18th century, she is most known for her work as a portrait-painter. She was for some years a fashionable artist in London, working in oils, crayons, and miniature. From 1760 ...

, portrait painter (died 1778 at sea) * c.

5 February Events Pre-1600 * 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy. *1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion. *1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are ...

(16 February NS) –

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense real ...

, Presbyterian minister, a Founding Father of the U.S. and President of the College of New Jersey (modern-day Princeton University; died 1794 in the United States) * 23 February – William Chambers, architect (born in Gothenburg; died 1796 in London) * 5 June (baptized; 16 June NS) – Adam Smith, economist and philosopher (died

1790 Events January–March * January 8 – United States President George Washington gives the first State of the Union address, in New York City. * January 11 – The 11 minor states of the Austrian Netherlands, which took ...

) *

20 June Events Pre-1600 * 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. * 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starti ...

(1 July NS) –

Adam Ferguson Adam Ferguson, (Scottish Gaelic: ''Adhamh MacFhearghais''), also known as Ferguson of Raith (1 July N.S./20 June O.S. 1723 – 22 February 1816), was a Scottish philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment. Ferguson was sympathet ...

, philosopher and social historian (died

1816 This year was known as the ''Year Without a Summer'', because of low temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, possibly the result of the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815, causing severe global cooling, catastrophic in s ...

) *

29 August Events Pre-1600 * 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708). * 870 – The city of Melite surrenders to an Aghlabid army following a siege, putting an end to Byzantin ...

–

William Dalrymple William Dalrymple may refer to: * William Dalrymple (1678–1744), Scottish Member of Parliament * William Dalrymple (moderator) (1723–1814), Scottish minister and religious writer * William Dalrymple (British Army officer) (1736–1807), Scott ...

, Church of Scotland minister (died

1814 Events January * January 1 – War of the Sixth Coalition – The Royal Prussian Army led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher crosses the Rhine. * January 3 ** War of the Sixth Coalition – Siege of Cattaro: French garrison ...

) *

Lady Anne Farquharson-MacKintosh Anne Mackintosh (1723–1784) was a Scottish Jacobite of the Clan Farquharson, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands and also the wife of Angus Mackintosh, chief of the Clan Mackintosh. She was the only female military leader during th ...

, Jacobite (died

1784 Events January–March * January 6 – Treaty of Constantinople: The Ottoman Empire agrees to Russia's annexation of the Crimea. * January 14 – The Congress of the United States ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Bri ...

) * Gavin Hamilton, neoclassical history painter, archaeologist and dealer (died 1798 in Rome) * Francis Peacock, "father of Scottish country dance" (died

1807 Events January–March * January 7 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland issues an Order in Council prohibiting British ships from trading with France or its allies. * January 20 – The Sierra Leone Company, faced with ...

)

Deaths

3 April Events Pre-1600 * 686 – Maya king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' assumes the crown of Calakmul. * 1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. * 1077 – The Patriarchate of Friûl, the first Friulian state, is created ...

– George Watson, accountant and benefactor (born

1654 Events January–March * January 6– In India, Jaswant Singh of Marwar (in what is now the state of Rajasthan) is elevated to the title of Maharaja by Emperor Shah Jahan. * January 11– In the Battle of Río Bueno in sout ...

)

The arts

Mavisbank House Mavisbank is a country house outside Loanhead, south of Edinburgh in Midlothian, Scotland. It was designed by architect William Adam in collaboration with his client, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, and was constructed between 1723 and 1727. The fir ...

in Midlothian is designed by William Adam in collaboration with his client, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, and construction begins; it is the first

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

villa in Scotland. *Cairney-born painter William Aikman settles in London as a portraitist under the patronage of John Campbell, Duke of Argyll.

References

{{Years in Scotland , state=collapsed Years of the 18th century in Scotland

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

1720s in Scotland