Events from the year 1748 in Scotland.

Incumbents

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 ...

– William Grant of Prestongrange *

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 ...

– Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, jointly with Alexander Hume

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 Culloden until 4 June; then Lord Arniston the Elder *

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 Milton, then Lord Tinwald

Events

* 1 April – under the Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747, trials for treason in Scotland can take place outside the shire in which the crime is committed. * 24 June – on the death of his father

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, John Adam inherits his architectural practice in Scotland and the position of Master Mason to the Board of Ordnance, immediately taking his brother

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

into partnership. * 1 July – James Davidson, who had deserted from the Hanoverian army to support the

Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometime ...

, is executed at Ruthrieston Cross near the

Bridge of Dee The Bridge of Dee or Brig o Dee ( gd, Drochaid Dhè) is a road bridge over the River Dee in Aberdeen, Scotland. The term is also used for the surrounding area of the city. Dating from 1527,Richards, J.M., ''The National Trust Book of Bridges ...

in Aberdeen after being found guilty of several robberies in Angus and The Mearns. * Construction of Fort George begins. * Clergy of the

Scottish Episcopal Church The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland. A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...

are forbidden to officiate unless

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

by an English (or Irish) bishop. * Garron Bridge on the

Inveraray Castle Inveraray Castle (pronounced or ; Scottish Gaelic ''Caisteal Inbhir Aora'' ) is a country house near Inveraray in the county of Argyll, in western Scotland, on the shore of Loch Fyne, Scotland's longest sea loch. It is one of the earliest ex ...

estate, designed by Roger Morris and/or his kin Robert Morris, is completed. * A

window tax Window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France, and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax, some houses from the p ...

is levied in Scotland. * The Treason Outlawries (Scotland) Act of 1749 comes into effect retrospectively. *

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...

's '' An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding'' is published. * The '' Aberdeen Journal'' is first published under this title.

Births

* 1 January –

Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald FRSE (1 January 1748 – 1 July 1831) was a Scottish nobleman and inventor. Life The son of Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald, he joined the British Army as a youth and also served time in the Roy ...

, nobleman and inventor (died 1831 in France) * 10 March –

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

, scientist (died

1819 Events January–March * January 2 – The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins. * January 25 – Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia. * January 29 – Si ...

) * 27 December – William Marshall, fiddle player and composer (died 1833) *

Hugh Henry Brackenridge Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748June 25, 1816) was an American writer, lawyer, judge, and justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. A frontier citizen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, he founded both the Pittsburgh Academy, now the ...

, writer, poet, lawyer, judge and

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

justice (died

1816 in the United States Events from the year 1816 in the United States. Incumbents Federal Government * President: James Madison ( DR-Virginia) * Vice President: ''vacant'' * Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia) * Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henr ...

)

Deaths

* 14 March –

George Wade Field Marshal George Wade (1673 – 14 March 1748) was a British Army officer who served in the Nine Years' War, War of the Spanish Succession, Jacobite rising of 1715 and War of the Quadruple Alliance before leading the construction of bar ...

, British Army officer and road builder in Scotland (born 1673 in Ireland; died in England) * 24 June – William Adam, architect (born

1689 Events January–March * January 22 (January 12, 1688 O.S.) – Glorious Revolution in England: The Convention Parliament is convened to determine if King James II of England, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, vacated ...

) * 27 August – James Thomson, poet and playwright (born

1700 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 19), where then Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 11 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 17 ...

; died in Richmond upon Thames) * 26 October –

Donald Cameron of Lochiel Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c. 1695 – 1748), popularly known as the Gentle Lochiel, was a Scottish Jacobite and hereditary chief of Clan Cameron, traditionally loyal to the exiled House of Stuart. His father John was permanently exiled afte ...

, "The Gentle Lochiel", clan chief and exiled Jacobite leader (born c. 1700; died in France)

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 ...

1740s in Scotland