Features - Notable Dates in History

19 August 1745	Prince Charles Edward Stewart's standard unfurled at Glenfinnan to start the most famous Jacobite Rising which ended tragically on the field of Culloden on 16 April 1746.
20 August 1745	Hanoverian forces under the command of Sir John Cope marched north from Stirling to counter the south-ward march of the Jacobite army.
27 August 1745	The Appin Regiment commanded by Charles Stewart of Ardshiel, Tearlach Mòr, and the MacDonalds of Glencoe under Alexander MacDonald of Glencoe joined the Jacobite army at Aberchalder, a township at the North end of Loch Oich, bringing the total Jacobite strength up to some two thousand.
29 August 1745	A Jacobite force failed in an attempt to capture the Hanovarian-held Ruthven Barracks, Kingussie.
3 September 1745	James Francis Stewart proclaimed as King James VIII of Scotland by his son, Prince Charles Edward at Perth.
11 September 1745	The Jacobite army left Perth and advanced towards a defenceless Edinburgh with Sir John Cope’s Hanoverian force still in the north.
16 September 1745	Canter of Coltbrig where Jacobite forces routed Hanovarian dragoons on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
17 September 1745	Jacobite army captured Edinburgh but failed to take the Castle. Prince Charles Edward Stewart took up residence in Holyroodhouse. Sir John Cope and Hanoverian army arrived by ship off Dunbar.
21 September 1745	Hanovarian army under the command of John Cope were surprised and overwhelmingly defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stewart in the Battle of Prestonpans. The victory left most of Scotland open to the Jacobites and Cope to ridicule: 'Hey Johnnie Cope, are ye wauken yet? Or are your drums a-beatin yet? If ye were auken I would wait To gang to the coals in the mornin.'
24 September 1745	Hanoverian casualty Colonel James Gardiner, who was killed at the Battle of Prestonpans, was interred in the kirkyard at Tranent Parish Church. He died near his house at Brankton, Prestonpans, and worshipped, when home, at Tranent.
28 September 1745	Audiences at the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres in London, England, sang "God Save the King" for the first time as news came of the Jacobite army victory at Prestonpans. God grant that Marshal Wade May by Thy mighty aid Victory bring May he sedition crush And like a torrent rush Rebellious Scots to crush God save the King. - ' God Save the King '
9 October 1745	Pitsligo’s Horse, with an estimated strength of 100 to 200, commanded by Alexander, 4^th Lord Forbes of Pitsligo, joined the Jacobite army in Edinburgh. Lord Pitsligo was a member of the Prince’s Council and following the Jacobite defeat at Culloden was hidden by his tenants in Aberdeenshire until his death in 1762.
15 October 1745	Ewan MacPherson of Cluny marched from Badenoch with his Regiment to join the Jacobite Cause. He spent several days forcing men out in Rannoch and Glenlyon before joining the Prince’s army in Edinburgh.
18 October 1745	William Boyd, 4^th Earl of Kilmarnock, who belonged to a family of Whig and Hanoverian supporters, joined Prince Charles Edward Stewart in Edinburgh. He was commissioned to raise a troop of horse, which took part in the advance into England. Taken prisoner at Culloden he was executed in London on 18 April 1746.
27 October 1745	A force of Jacobite Frasers were thwarted in their aim of seizing the home and person of the Lord President, Duncan Forbes of Culloden. He forced their retreat by firing a swivel gun from his bedroom window but could not prevent his cattle being lifted.
29 October 1745	Cluny’s Regiment, 350 strong, under Ewan MacPherson of Cluny, joined the Jacobite army in Edinburgh.
30 October 1745	The Jacobite Grand Council meeting in Edinburgh decided by a single vote to invade England but only after Lord George Murray insisted that the entry into England should be the western route.
30 October 1745	Hanoverian supporters besieged Oliphant of Gask, Jacobite depute governor of Perth and chased the Jacobite governor of Dundee, David Fotheringham, out of the city. Subsequently both Perth and Dundee were heavily garrisoned by the Jacobites.
31 October 1745	The main body of the Jacobite army marched from Edinburgh to Dalkeith, where the men bivouacked between Newbattle Water and Melville Burn, prior to invading England.
2 November 1745	Hanoverian forces based at Edinburgh Castle re-took the City of Edinburgh as the Jacobite army commenced its march from Dalkeith to invade England.
8 November 1745	The Jacobite army crossed the Scottish Border and spent the first night on English soil.
10 November 1745	The Jacobite army, having entered England, made a formal demand for the surrender of Carlisle 'within 2 hours'. When all hope ended that Marshal Wade, commander of Hanoverian forces at Newcastle, would march to relieve the town, Carlisle surrendered 5 days later.
12 November 1745	Prince Charles Edward Stewart established his headquarters in Brampton during the Jacobite siege of Carlisle.
17 November 1745	Prince Charles Edward Stewart, accompanied by pipers, entered Carlisle following the surrender of the city to the Jacobite Army.
20 November 1745	Lord George Murray and approximately half the Jacobite army marched south from Carlisle. Prince Charles Edward Stewart followed the next day with the remainder. Dividing the army in two was an attempt to ensure that all man could find adequate nightly quarters.
23 November 1745	In response to the advance of the Jacobite army, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, was appointed to the supreme command of the Hanoverian army in England.
28 November 1745	A Jacobite sergeant named Dickson accompanied by a drummer and a whore entered Manchester and, with the aid of local Jacobite sympethisors, took the town in advance of the arrival of the Jacobite army.
3 December 1745	Prince Charles Edward Stewart declared his father King of England, Scotland and Wales at Ashbourne, a few miles north of Derby.
4 December 1745	Jacobite army entered Derby, England, having failed to rally major support for the Stewart cause during its march south from Scotland.
6 December 1745	Charles Edward Stewart and the Jacobite Army retreated from Derby, England.
9 December 1745	Cluny’s Regiment, under Ewan MacPherson of Cluny, were the last Jacobites to leave Derby and join the retreat back to Scotland. The regiment played a major role in the successful rear-guard action fought at Clifton.
10 December 1745	An assassination attempt was made on Prince Charles Edward Stewart in Wigan by a staunch Hanovarian, but his aim was poor and his shot went wide of the mark.
18 December 1745	Skirmish at Clifton where retreating Jacobite forces under Lord George Murray, defeated General Bland's Hanoverian troops. The last battle to be fought on English soil.
20 December 1745	Retreating Jacobite army re-entered Scotland, fording the spate-filled River Esk in the Borders.
21 December 1745	Hanovarian army under the Duke of Cumberland appeared before the walls of Carlisle and laid siege to the town's Jacobite garrison. Four hundred Jacobites remained to hold Carlisle following the retreat back to Scotland, comprising the Manchester Regiment, who did not want to leave England, the wounded from Clifton and a few men from the Highland Regiments.
23 December 1745	At the Battle of Inverurie Jacobite forces under Lord Lewis Gordon completely overwhelmed Hanoverian troops led by MacLeod of MacLeod and Munro of Culcairn.
30 December 1745	The Jacobite garrison left to hold Carlisle surrendered to Hanoverian forces under the Duke of Cumberland. The Jacobite prisoners were kept chained in various locations under extreme conditions until the summer of 1745, when they were hung, drawn and disemboweled for High Treason.
2 January 1746	Prince Charles Edward Stewart reviewed the Jacobite army at Glasgow Green. The city of Glasgow was coerced into supplying the Jacobites with goods including twelve thousand shirts, six thousand coats and six thousand pairs of hose. Alexander Maclean, a pedlar and straggler from the Jacobite army, was sentenced to death at York Castle, England. The sentence was subsequently commuted to transportation. He had been captured in the Ship Inn, Winkle, by the landlord Joseph Cunliffe who seized his musket and held him at gunpoint until the arrival of the local magistrate Sir Peter Davenport. Maclean was imprisoned under harsh conditions, firstly at Chester and then York Castle. ‘Confesseth and Sayeth that he was Born in the Highlands of Scotland and was in with the Rebells at Athol in Scotland aforesaid and marched with until he was apprehended.’ - from deposition signed with his mark
3 January 1746	Jacobite army left Glasgow in two columns by Kilsyth and Cumbernauld taking with them a bailie and merchant as hostages for the supplies that the city had been ordered to provide.
8 January 1746	The Burgh of Stirling surrendered to Jacobite Army but the Castle remained in Hanoverian hands.
13 January 1746	MacPherson of Cluny’s Regiment took part in an expedition, under Lord George Murray, to Linlithgow to seize provisions for the Hanoverians collected by the townspeople under the order of General Hawley.
17 January 1746	The Jacobite Army, led by Lord George Murray, defeated Government forces under General Hawley. The last Jacobite victory.
31 January 1746	Hanovarian army under the Duke of Cumberland advanced from Edinburgh to Linlithgow. He took up quarters with many of his men in Linlithgow Palace, a favourite residence of the Stuart Kings and birth place of Mary Queen of Scots. The Jacobites made arrangements for their withdrawal from Stirling.
1 February 1746	Jacobite army evacuated Stirling and retreated northwards.
2 February 1746	A Jacobite Council held in the Drummond Arms Inn, Crieff, decided to retreat north in three columns and to rendezvous in the neighbourhood of Inverness. The Council saw a widening of the gulf between Prince Charles Edward Stewart and Jacobite commander Lord George Murray.
11 February 1746	Ruthven Barracks surrendered to Jacobite forces.
16 February 1746	Government forces under Lord Louden attempted to capture Prince Charles Edward Stewart at Moy Hall but were surprised and routed by a handful of Jacobites. The only death in the Rout of Moy was Duncan Bam MacCrimmon, Hereditory Piper to the MacLeods of Dunvegan, who took the Hanoverian side in the 45.
18 February 1746	Jacobite army captured Inverness.
27 February 1746	Hanoverian army under the Duke of Cumberland arrived in Aberdeen from Perth, having left garrisons at Blair Castle and Castle Menzies in order to prevent the Jacobites advancing into the Lowlands.
15 March 1746	The Atholl Brigade, commanded by Lord George Murray, left Jacobite held Inverness to rendezvous in Badenoch with 300 MacPhersons, led by Cluny MacPherson, in order to attack Hanoverian Government military posts in Murray country.
17 March 1746	Before daybreak Jacobite forces, commanded by Lord George Murray, captured over 30 Hanoverian military posts between Dalwhinnie and Blair Castle. The Jacobites took over 300 prisoners and suffered no casualties. Lord George Murray then commenced a siege of his ancestral home, Blair Castle. The siege was abandoned two weeks later, just before a relieving Hanoverian force arrived under the Earl of Crawford.
20 March 1746	Following a successful military engagement near Dornoch Jacobite forces, pursuing Hanoverians under Lord Louden, captured Captain Aeneas Mackintosh of Mackintosh, 22^nd Clan Chief. Prince Charles Edward Stewart paroled him into the hands of his wife and Jacobite supporter, Lady Ann Mackintosh of Invercauld, who was known as ‘Colonel Ann’. In spite of her husband being a serving Hanoverian officer she raised Clan Chattan for the Jacobite cause., and it was led in the field by Alexander MacGillivray of Dunmaglas, who died valiantly at Culloden.
21 March 1746	A Jacobite force under Major Glasgow, comprising fifty picked men of Stuart's Regiment, led by Captain Robert Stewart, Younger of Glenlivet, and some French troops surprised a Hanoverian detachment of seventy Campbell militia and thirty of Kingston's dragoons in Keith at 1am. With the loss of one Frenchman and only a few wounded, they secured the whole party, except for five or six who escaped. On the Hanoverian side there were nine killed and a considerable number wounded. By daybreak Major Glasgow had returned to Jacobite headquarters on the Spey with eighty prisoners.
25 March 1746	The sloop of war Hazard, which had been captured by the Jacobites at Montrose and renamed Prince Charles, ran ashore on the Melness Sands, on the west side of Tongue Bay, to escape the guns of the Hanovarian man-of-war Sheerness. The Prince Charles was returning from France to Scotland with about £13,000 and other valuable supplies for the Jacobite army. Thirty-six men of the Prince Charles were killed during the chase.
26 March 1746	Hanovarian forces comprising fifty Mackays, under Lord Reay's steward, and a similar number of Lord Louden's troops captured the French money and supplies landed from the Prince Charles as they were being carried to Inverness, under the conduct of Mackay, Younger of Melness. The Hanovarians killed a number of the French before the force surrendered; the prisoners consisted of twenty officers and one hundred and twenty soldiers and sailors.
31 March 1746	Lord George Murray raised the siege of his ancestral home, Blair Castle, and returned north with the Atholl Regiment, swelled with new recruits, leaving the MacPhersons to guard the Badenoch approaches to Inverness from the south.
3 April 1746	An abortive two-week Jacobite siege, under the command of Cameron of Lochiel, of Hanoverian-held Fort William was lifted. The Royal Eccossaise immediately marched to join Prince Charles Edward Stewart in Inverness and Lochiel's Camerons rejoined the main Jacobite army on 14 April.
8 April 1746	Hanoverian army under the Duke of Cumberland left Aberdeen and advanced along the coast road towards the lower reaches of the Spey.
9 April 1746	A Jacobite force attacked and plundered Cullen House, the home of staunch Hanoverian supporter Lord Findlater, the Sheriff of Banffshire.
12 April 1746	The Hanoverian army under the Duke of Cumberland crossed the Spey between Fochabers and the mouth of the Spey. The water came up to the 'middles' of the infantry, but the sole losses were one dragoon and four women drowned. The 2000 Jacobites deployed under Lord John Drummond on the opposite bank retreated without fighting.
15 April 1746	An abortive night attempt by the Jacobite army to attack the Hanoverian forces approaching Inverness from Nairn left the Highlanders sleepless as well as foodless when the next day the two armies confronted each other at Culloden Moor.
16 April 1746	Jacobite army routed by Hanoverian Government forces in the Battle of Culloden. The defeat marked the end of the last Stewart attempt to regain, by force, the throne forfeited by James VII. Mo chreach, armailt nam breacan Bhith air sgaoileadh ‘s air sgapadh ‘s gach àit, Aig fìor-bhalgairean Shasuinn Nach do ghnathaich bonn ceartais ‘nan dàil; Ged a bhuannaich iad baiteal Cha b’ ann d’an cruadal no ‘n tapadh a bhà, Ach gaoth aniar agus frasan Thighinn a nios oirnn bhàrr machair nan Gall. (Woe is me for the plaided troops scattered and routed everywhere at the hands of these foxes of England who observed no fairness at all in the conflict; though they won the battle, it was not from courage or the skill of them but the westward wind and the rain coming down on us from the flat lands of the lowlanders.) (Latha Chul-Lodair. Culloden Day) John Roy Stuart, Gaelic Poet and Jacobite Soldier in the battle
18 April 1746	A Hanoverian force of 200 commanded by Colonel Cockayne looted Moy House and took Lady Anne Macintosh, ‘Colonel Anne’, prisoner. A noted Jacobite she had raised Clan Chatton for the Stewart cause, in spite of her husband being a Hanoverian officer, and the regiment, led by Alexander MacGillvray of Dunmaglas, fought at Falkirk and Culloden where MacGillvray died heroically. Lady Anne was imprisoned in Inverness for six weeks and then released.
20 April 1746	Jacobites, including Lord George Murray, fugitives from Culloden and whole parties who had missed the battle and rendezvoused at Ruthven Barracks, dispersed on receiving a note from Prince Charles Edward Stewart "Let every man seek his safety in the best way he can."
21 April 1746	Following the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, Ogilvie’s Regiment (Forfarshire) arrived as a body at Clova and dispersed in their native Strathmore. The regiment was first raised in Forfarshire by David, Lord Ogilvie, the heir to the house of Airlie, and took part in the invasion of England. A second battalion was raised by Lieutenant Colonel Sir James Kinloch which fought at Inverurie. The reunited regiment fought at Falkirk and Culloden. The regiment was regarded as the best drilled and disciplined unit raised by the Jacobites and it retreated intact from the field of Culloden and proceeded to the rendezvous at Ruthven Barracks.
4 May 1746	On the advice of their clan chief, Ludovic Grant, 16 Grants of Glenmoriston and 68 of Glen Urquhart surrendered themselves and their weapons in Inverness. He had promised them a safe return to their homes, instead the Hanoverians marched the Jacobite down to Citadel Quay and loaded them aboard the prison transport ship Dolphin. They were conveyed to Tilbury, London, and subsequently transported to Barbados. Cumberland and Grant each blamed the other for the violation of the safe-passage offer. By 1750 only 18 of the 84 men survived and only 7 returned to Scotland.
8 May 1746	In the wake of Culloden Jacobite chiefs met at Achnacary and entered into a bond of mutual defence.
11 May 1746	Death of leading Jacobite Lord James Drummond, third titular Duke of Perth, en route to France after escaping from Culloden.
14 May 1746	Prince Charles Edward Stewart and a group of companions reached Coradale, in South Uist, and stayed there for three weeks, until news arrived that Hanoverians troops were closing in on the fugitives.
28 May 1746	The residence of leading Jacobite Donald Cameron of Lochiel, The Gentle Lochiel, at Achnacarry was destroyed by Hanoverian troops under the command of Colonel Edward Cornwallis.
30 May 1746	William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, visited Fort William to thank Hanoverian officers for their successful defence against an abortive Jacobite siege prior to Culloden.
18 June 1746	Flora MacDonald met Prince Charles Edward Stewart in Skye and persuaded him to don women's clothes as part of an escape plan.
19 June 1746	Hanoverian troops searched St Kilda, in vain, after rumours that Prince Charles Edward Stewart was hiding there. The remote islanders knew nothing about the '45 Jacobite Rising apart from the Laird of MacLeod had recently been at war.
25 June 1746	The banner of the Keppoch Macdonalds was burned at Glasgow Mercat Cross. Fifteen Jacobite colours had previously been burnt in Edinburgh. Macdonald of Keppoch led 200 men at Culloden and fell mortally wounded.
12 July 1746	Flora MacDonald was arrested for her part in aiding Prince Charles Edward Stewart to escape capture and sail from Benbecula to Skye disguised as her Irish maid ‘Betty Burke’.
18 July 1746	William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, left Fort Augustus, after setting in motion the pacification of the Highlands, and returned to London, England. There he was met by cheering crowds, bonfires and fireworks, prior to being honoured at a series of formal balls and receptions in celebration of his success in Scotland in defeating his cousin, Prince Charles Edward Stewart, and ending the 1745 Jacobite Rising.
30 July 1746	Francis Townley, 38-year-old commander of the Manchester Regiment, was executed on Kennington Common, London. His 300-dash strong regiment along with 200 Highlanders under Colonel John Hamilton were left to defend Carlisle Castle following the retreat from England by the Jacobite army. Carlisle fell to the Duke of Cumberland on 30 December 1745 and many of the garrison were executed.
1 August 1746	Hanoverian officers of Fleming’s 36^th insulted the people of Aberdeen and encouraged their troops to riot. They smashed the windows of more than two hundred homes that had failed to display candles in honour of the birthday of King George II.
18 August 1746	For their part in the 1745 Rising Jacobite Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino were executed for treason on Tower Hill, London, England.
22 August 1746	Death of 24-year-old Elizabeth Campbell of Clunas, betrothed of Alexander MacGillivray of Dunmaglas who fell leading Clan Chattan at Culloden, of a ‘broken heart’. It was claimed that she secretly re-interred Dunmaglas under the door-step of Petty Church. She was buried at the Chapel of Barevan.
24 August 1746	Death of Sir James Stewart of Burray, Orkney, of fever at Southwark, London. He had been arrested three months previously on suspicion of Jacobitism although he had taken no part in the 1745 Jacobite Rising.
5 September 1746	Prince Charles Edward Stewart joined Cluny of MacPherson in his hide-out ‘Cluny’s Cage’ on Ben Alder. He remained there until word came of the arrival of the French frigate L’Heureux in Loch nan Uambh in which the Prince escaped to France.
13 September 1746	Prince Charles Edward Stewart, accompanied by leading Jacobites, left Cluny's Cage on Ben Alder en route to Borrodale and escape to France.
19 September 1746	Prince Charles Edward Stewart arrived from ‘Cluny’s Cave’ on Ben Alder at Loch nan Uambh and embarked on the French frigate L’Heureax accompanied by Donald Cameron of Lochiel, John Roy Stewart and other leading Jacobites. L’Heureax sailed for France next day before daybreak.
20 September 1746	To escape capture in Scotland, Prince Charles Edward Stewart sailed from Loch nan Uamh to safety in France aboard the French ship L'Heureux. It eluded Government ships under the cover of fog.
23 September 1746	The Presbytery of Brechin applied for protection from marauding Jacobites who were active in the Edzell area.
21 October 1746	Patrick Lindsey, who proclaimed for Prince Charles Edward Stewart at St Andrews and became a captain in the Jacobite army, was executed at Brampton, England.
15 November 1746	James Reid of Angus, a piper in the Jacobite Forfarshire Regiment, was executed at York. He had been captured when the Jacobite garrison surrendered Carlisle Castle to the Hanoverians on 30 December 1745.
25 November 1746	John Gordon of Glenbucket, a member of the Prince’s Council, whose regiment fought on the second line of the Jacobite army at Culloden, sailed to safety on a Swedish sloop. He died in great poverty at Boulogne, France, on 16 June 1750.
28 November 1746	Execution of Andrew Wood, a Glasgow shoemaker, who served a captain in the Jacobite Edinburgh Regiment under Colonel John Roy Stuart, at Kennington Common, London. He fought in the front line at Culloden and was taken prisoner by the victorious Hanoverians. Francis Farqharson of Monaltrie, on the day of his proposed execution after his part in the 1745 Jacobite Rising, was reprieved. He was forced to spend the next 18 years in England before he was allowed to return to his native Deeside where he carried out agricultural improvements.
6 December 1746	The imprisoned Flora MacDonald arrived in London. She was not brought to trial for her part in helping Prince Charles Edward Stewart to escape and was released under the general amnesty of July 1747.
9 April 1747	Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was executed for his part in the 1745 Jacobite Rising, the last beheading held in England on Tower Hill, London. The 'Scots Magazine' reported that as he mounted the scaffold, assisted by two warders, he looked round and, seeing so many people, declared "God save us, why should there be such a bustle about taking off an old grey head that can't get up three steps without two men to support it?"
8 May 1747	The Veteran sailed from Liverpool, England, bound for Antigue, St Kitts and Jamaica, with 149 Jacobite prisoners, including 15 women, on board. They were to be settle as indentured slaves. En route a French privateer The Diamant, under Captain Paul Marshal, captured The Veteran and released the prisoners.
17 June 1747	The Vesting Act authorised the Scottish Court of Exchequer, the guardian of crown revenues in Scotland, to make full inquiry into the extent and value of estates forfeited by Jacobites following the 1745 Rising. Fifty-three estates were surveyed and only 12 of these were declared not forfeit.
28 June 1747	A French privateer The Diamant, under captain Paul Marshal, captured The Veteran from Liverpool near Antique and rescued 149 Jacobite prisoners, including 15 women, who were being transported. The freed Jacobites were taken to France.
18 July 1747	Birth of John Paul Jones, the son of a gardener at Arbigland near Kirkbean (Kirkcudbrightshire), the future 'Founder of the American Navy'. Admiral Jones died in Paris in 1792. There is a national monument to Jones in Washington DC and in Kirkbean Church there is a memorial font donated by the US Navy in 1945.
1 August 1747	The wearing of tartan was prohibited in the wake of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. The penalty for a first offence was six months imprisonment and for a second, seven months transportation.
10 December 1747	Death of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President of the Court of Session, who was largely responsible for the failure of the Jacobite Rising 1745-6 and tried to mitigate the subsequent repressive measures.
14 March 1748	Death of Irish-born General George Wade, soldier and roadbuilder (including 250 miles and 40 bridges in Scotland). He was appointed Commander-in-Chief in Scotland after his 1724 report on the need for military roads was accepted. ‘If you’d seen these roads before they were made, You’d have lifted up your hands and blessed General Wade.’
1 July 1748	James Davidson, who had deserted from the Hanoverian army to support the Jacobites, was executed at the Ruthrieston Cross, near the Bridge of Dee, Aberdeen, after being found guilty of several robberies in Angus and the Mearns.
5 July 1748	The British Linen Bank, founded on an initiative from the Board of Trustees for Manufactures to develop the Scottish linen industry, was chartered.
26 October 1748	Death of Jacobite leader Donald Cameron of Lochiel, The Gentle Lochiel, in exile in France. He died, aged 53, in the Military Hospital at Bergues, a northern French town near Dunkirk, of an 'inflammation of the brain' (probably meningitis). His support was essential to the commencement of the 1745 Jacobite Rising which ended in failure at Culloden in 1746.
27 December 1748	Birth of William Marshall, renowned fiddler and composer of Strathspeys, some 250 tunes, at Fochabers. He was butler to the Duke of Gordon for nearly 30 years and subsequently factor of his extensive estates in Banffshire and Aberdeenshire.
18 April 1749	Death of Alexander Robertson of Strowan, in his 81^st year, celebrated clan chief and poet, who brought out his clan in 1688 and 1715 for the Jacobite Cause, at his home at Carie in Rannoch. He marshalled his clan for Prince Charles Edward Stewart in 1745 but owing to his age did not lead them and thus escaped proscription following the failure of the 45 Rising.
5 September 1750	Birth of Robert Fergusson, poet, in the Canongate, Edinburgh. His poetry in Scots was to inspire Robert Burns who wrote in praise of Fergusson - "my elder brother in misfortune, by far my elder brother in the muse". Fergusson died tragically in the Edinburgh Bedlam in 1774.
21 June 1751	Alexander Geddes from Kinnermony, Banffshire was executed for the crime of bestiality at Aberdeen. He was half-strangled, cut down and burnt to ashes. He was the last felon in Scotland to be burnt following execution.
29 June 1751	Birth of William Roxburgh, botanist and doctor, at Craigie in Ayrshire. From 1793 to 1813 he was Superintendent of the Culcutta Botanic Garden where he greatly increased the collection and became known as the ‘Father of Indian Botany.’
14 May 1752	Colin Campbell of Glenure, on his way to evict tenants of Jacobite chiefs was shot in the Wood of Lettermore between Ballachulish Ferry and Kentallen. Campbell had been a notorious persecutor of the Jacobites after Culloden and his death became known as The Appin Murder. James Stewart of the Glens was wrongly hanged for the crime.
8 November 1752	James Stewart, Seumas a’ Ghlinne (James of the Glen), was executed at Cnap a’ Chaolais, Argyll, for his ‘supposed’ part in the murder of Colin Campbell of Glenure.
7 June 1753	Execution, by hanging, of leading Jacobite Dr Archie Cameron, brother to Lochiel the exiled Chief of Clan Cameron, at Tyburn, London. He was denied a trial as the Hanoverian authorities feared that the identity of their spies might be revealed.
14 May 1754	Twenty-two noblemen and gentlemen of Fife, having devised a competition to be played out over the links of St Andrews, presented a Siver Club to the winner, who would become Captain for the year. From this annual competition evolved The Society of St Andrews Golfers which became (in 1834) The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, which remains at the helm of Scottish and world golf. 'The Noblemen and Gentlemen above named, being Admirers of the Anticient and Healthfull Exercise of the Golf, and at the same time having the Interest and prosperity of the Anticient City of St Andrews at heart, being the Alma Mater of the Golf did .... constitute for a Silver Club.... having a St Andrew engraved on the head thereof, to be played for on the Links of St Andrews.' [From the Club Minutes.]
25 February 1755	David Allan, destined to be one Scotland’s greatest painters, began studies at the Foulis Painting academy, aged 11. He went on to study in Rome under the influence of the leading neo-classicist and fellow Scot Gavin Hamilton.
31 May 1756	Birth of Dr James Currie, physician and first biographer of Robert Burns, at Kirkpatrick-Fleming, Dumfriesshire.
21 September 1756	Birth of John McAdam, Ayr born surveyor who introduced the 'macadam' system of road surfacing.
19 January 1757	Death of Thomas Ruddiman, born in Banff in 1674, grammarian, schoolmaster, reviewer, historian, printer and publisher, Jacobit, librarian of Advocates' Library.
9 August 1757	Birth of Thomas Telford at Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire, engineer of roads, canals, bridges and harbours. He was the first President of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
7 January 1758	Death of Allan Ramsay, poet, anthologist and author of 'The Gentle Shepherd'. "At Edinburgh, in an advanced age, Mr Allan Ramsay, formerly a bookseller in that city. He was well-known for his 'Gentle Shepherd'; and many other poetical pieces in the Scottish dialect, which he wrote and collected." Scots Magazine XIX.670
14 October 1758	James Francis Edward Keith, Marshal Keith, Prussian Field Marshal, was killed in battle at Hochkinch, Germany. He entered foreign military service after taking the Jacobite side in both the 1715 and 1719 Risings. He is judged to be one of the most successful Scots who fought under foreign colours.
25 January 1759	Birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's National Bard, in a clay bigan at Alloway. "There was a lad was born in Kyle, But whatna day o whatna style, I doubt it's hardly worth my while To be sae nice wi Robin. Robin was a rovin boy, Rantin rovin, rantin rovin, Robin was a rovin boy, Rantin rovin Robin." Burns "There Was a Lad"
5 March 1759	Birth of Rev Dr John Jamieson D.D., minister of the secession church and compiler of ‘The Dictionary of the Scottish Language’, in Glasgow.
1 January 1760	Carron Ironworks near Falkirk was started by Roebuck and Garbett of Birmingham and Caddell of Cockenzie. The small naval guns known as carronades were among the company's products. If the Works prove prosperous as we expect, some places in the Neighbourhood of the Firth of Forth will become one of the principal Seats of Iron works in Britain, not only for making Iron from the Ore into Barrs and Slit Iron, but into Nails and many other Manufactures. from a letter by Garbett
8 July 1760	Death of Lord George Murray, outstanding exiled Jacobite commander, in Holland.
27 July 1760	Scottish School of Design was founded. It became the Royal Institution, now the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.
3 September 1760	Birth of James Wilson, weaver and inventor of the stocking frame on which the pearl stitch could be worked, in the parish of Avondale. He was executed in Glasgow for his part in leading the Strathavon Radicals in the 1820 Radical Rising.
28 September 1760	Gilbert Burns, brother of Robert Burns, Scotland's National Bard, was born at Alloway, Ayrshire.
11 October 1760	Death of leading Jacobite commander Lord George Murray, son of the 1^st Duke of Atholl, in exile in Holland.
31 January 1761	Lachlan Macquarie, an army officer who became Governor of New South Wales (1809) and was known as the ‘Father of Australia’, was born on the Isle of Ulva, off Mull.
7 June 1761	Birth of John Rennie, civil engineer, builder of Waterloo, London and Southwark Bridges, at Phantassie, East Lothian.
21 December 1762	Death of Alexander, 4^th Lord Forbes of Pitsligo, aged 84, in Aberdeenshire. A fervent Jacobite, as Colonel of Pitsligo’s Horse he joined the Jacobite army at Edinburgh in October 1745, was a member of the Prince’s Council, and served for the remainder of the campaign. After Culloden he successfully remained in hiding in his Aberdeenshire estates, safeguarded by his friends and tenants.
16 May 1763	Dr Samuel Johnson and his Edinburgh-born biographer James Boswell, met for the first time at Tom Davie’s bookshop in Russell Street, London.
26 June 1763	Stagecoach service was introduced between Glasgow and Greenock.
9 August 1763	Birth of Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith, Governor of the Leeward Islands, at Leith-hall, Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire.
4 August 1765	Birth of Thomas Muir, advocate and Radical reformer, in a flat above his parents’ shop in Glasgow’s High Street.
1 January 1766	Death of James Francis Stewart, The Old Pretender, the Jacobite 'James VIII', and father of Prince Charles Edward Stewart, in Rome.
16 April 1766	Birth of James Leslie, noted mathematician, in Largo, Fife. He went to university at 13, and his work on the properties of heat resulted in the award of the Rumford medal in 1804. In 1810 he became the first to achieve ‘artificial congelation’ – the process of cooling water by means of reducing air pressure and extracting water vapour – which was the basis of modern industrial refrigeration.
17 April 1766	James Craig’s winning entry for development of Edinburgh’s New Town was approved.
13 June 1766	Two soldiers and a civilian who had been found guilty at the Circuit Court in Aberdeen of carrying off meal from a shop during a riot in Banff and sentenced to be whipped and banished to the plantations for life were rescued by a mob. They attacked the Aberdeen Hangman and guard with clubs and stones. Walter Annesley and John Blair, of the Sixth Regiment of Foot, and Alexander Robb of Banff were spirited away. The magistrates offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of one or more of the escapees but to no avail.
29 December 1766	Birth of Charles Macintosh, chemist who patented waterproof cloth, at Glasgow. He devised a waterproof material by combining wool fibre with indiarubber, creating the garment which still bears his name.
3 June 1767	Architect James Craig was presented with the Freedom of Edinburgh for his planned layout of the New Town.
1 December 1768	The first of three volumes of ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ appeared, edited by William Smellie and published in Edinburgh.
24 October 1769	Alexander, the Third Earl of Eglington and an Ayrshire agricultural improver, was shot and killed in a scuffle with a poacher who later committed suicide.
9 November 1769	The first Co-operative Society in Britain was founded by weavers of Fenwick, Ayrshire.
1 November 1770	Death of Aberdeen-born Alexander Cruden, author of ‘A Complete Concordance to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament’ (first published 1737), at Islington, London. In his will he left £100 for a bursary of five pounds per annum to assist educating a student at Marischal College, Aberdeen.
14 November 1770	Stirling-born explorer James Bruce, known as 'The Abyssinian', discovered the source of the Blue Nile - Lake Tana in north-west Ethiopa.
9 December 1770	Birth of James Hogg, The Ettrick Shepherd, poet and author, at Ettrickhall Farm in the Ettrick Valley.
15 August 1771	Birth in Edinburgh of Sir Walter Scott, poet and novelist. 'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!' The Lay of the Last Ministrel (1805)
10 September 1771	Birth of Mungo Park at Foulshiels in the Yarrow Valley, surgeon and explorer in West Africa.
8 June 1772	Birth of Robert Stevenson, engineer and lighthouse builder, in Glasgow. He designed or constructed at least 25 lighthouses in Scotland, including his first, the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1811. His three sons Alan (1807-65), David (1815-86) and Thomas (1818-87) followed in his footsteps. The author Robert Louis Stevenson (Thomas’ son) was his grandson.
22 June 1772	Slavery was outlawed in Britain.
25 December 1772	Birth of John Mackay, eminent botanist and superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
14 August 1773	Dr Samuel Johnson arrived in Scotland to join James Boswell at the start of their famous journey to the Western Isles.
12 September 1773	Dr Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell were entertained at Kingsburgh by Flora MacDonald and her husband Allan.
23 October 1773	Birth of Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, eminent judge and man of letters, founder and editor of the Edinburgh Review (1802), in Edinburgh.
3 June 1774	Birth of Robert Tannahill, poet and songwriter, in Castle Street, Paisley, Son of a handloom weaver, he was regarded as chief of the many Paisley poets, and became widely popular for songs such as ' Braes o' Gleniffer' and ' Jessie the Flower of Dunblane'.
16 October 1774	Death of Robert Fergusson, poet, in the Edinburgh Bedlam. Twelve years later Robert Burns arranged for the erection of a headstone at Fergusson's unmarked grave in the Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh. 'No Sculptured Marble here, nor pompous Lay, 'No storied Urn nor animated Bust'; This simple Stone directs pale Scotia's Way To pour her Sorrows o'er her Poet's Dust.' - Burns' inscription for Fergusson's headstone.
30 April 1775	Birth of George Kinloch who became known as 'The Radical Laird' in Dundee. A leading Radical he was elected as Dundee's first Reformed Member of the Westminster Parliament in 1832.
23 August 1775	King George III proclaimed existence of open rebellion in American colonies. Scots fought on both sides.
8 September 1775	Birth of John Leyden, surgeon, poet and linguist, at Denholm, Roxburghshire. In 1802 he assisted his friend Sir Walter Scott in finding material for his ‘Ministrelsey of the Scottish Borders’.
27 February 1776	The Continental Army of North Carolina defeated a Loyalist force of Scottish Highlanders at Moore’s Creek Bridge, Carolina. Amongst several hundred Highlanders taken prisoner was Allan MacDonald of Kingsburgh, husband of Flora MacDonald. In April 1776, the North Carolina Provincial Congress encouraged by the success at Moore’s Creek Bridge, became the first representative body in all of North America to vote in favour of ending constitutional links between the Colonies and Britain.
9 March 1776	Foundation of modern economics, with publication of 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations', written in Kirkcaldy by Adam Smith.
25 March 1776	Death of Adam Dickson, minister of Dunse, Berwickshire, noted writer on agriculture, as a result of a fall from his horse.
4 July 1776	The American Declaration of Independence was adopted in Philadelphia. It was not fully written or signed until August. The Declaration was signed by two native-born Scots - James Wilson from Fife and the Rev John Witherspoon from East Lothian. In reply to a claim that the colonists were 'not yet ripe for independence' Witherspoon famously stated 'In my opinion sir, we are not only ripe for independence, we are rotting for it.'
25 August 1776	Death of David Hume, philosopher and historian, in Edinburgh. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all philosophers.
12 January 1777	Hugh Mercer, an Aberdeen-born brigadier in the American army who was a surgeon for the Jacobite army at Culloden, was fatally wounded by a musket blow at Princeton during the American War of Independence.
8 June 1778	The Earl of Seaforth raised a regiment for the American War from the MacKenzies and MacRaes of Ross-shire and Sutherland. In 1961 the Seaforth Highlanders amalgamated with the Camerons to form the Queen's Own Highlanders.
14 April 1779	Death of John MacCodrum, Gaelic satirical poet of North Uist.
2 May 1779	Birth of John Galt, novelist, Secretary to the Canada Company and founder of the town of Guelph,Ontario, at Irvine, Ayrshire.
20 July 1779	Dougal Graham, storyteller and packman, who followed the Jacobite army throughout its campaign to Culloden and was later the official Glasgow bell-ringer, died aged 65.
7 October 1780	Patrick Ferguson, Aberdeenshire-born inventor of the breech-loading rifle, was killed with other Loyalists at King's Mountain, South Carolina, during the American War of Independence.
18 December 1780	The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland was founded
26 December 1780	Birth of Mary Somerville, mathematician and author after whom the Oxford College was named, at Jedburgh.
4 July 1781	Robert Burns joined the Free Masons. The minute book of the combined St David’s Lodge in Tarbolton (on 25 June 1781, the St James’ Tarbolton Lodge No. 178 united with the St David’s Tarbolton Lodge No. 174) records that ‘Robert Burns of Lochly was entered an Apprentice’. In October he was ‘passsed and raised’, travelling back from Irvine where he was learning the flax trade.
2 February 1782	Birth of James Chalmers, bookseller, printer, newspaper publisher and deviser of the adhesive postage stamp (1834), at Arbroath.
10 December 1782	Death of Alexander Spiers, one of the enterprising team of merchants who established Glasgow as a great commercial centre and the largest tobacco port in Europe.
1 January 1783	Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, the first in Britain, was founded.
27 January 1783	The Glasgow Advertiser, forerunner of The Glasgow Herald, was first published.
29 March 1783	The Royal Society of Edinburgh was incorporated by charter. “About the end of the year 1782 in a meeting of the Professors of the University of Edinburgh, many of whom were likewise members of the Philosophical Society, and warmly attached to its interests, a scheme was proposed by the Reverend Dr Robertson, Principal of the University, for the Establishment of a New Society on a more restricted plan, and after the model of some foreign Academies, which have for their object the cultivation of every branch of science, erudition, and taste.” From the Society’s petition for a royal charter
9 February 1784	The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland was formed in Fortune’s Tontine Tavern, Edinburgh. The objects were defined on 11 January 1785: An enquiry into the present state of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and the condition of their inhabitants. 2. An enquiry into the means of improvement of the Highlands by establishing towns and villages; by facilitating communication through different parts of the Highlands of Scotland; by roads and bridges, advancing agriculture and extending fisheries, introducing useful trades and manufactures; and by an exertion to unite the efforts of the proprietors, and call the attention of the Government towards the encouragement and production of these beneficial purposes. The Society shall also pay a proper attention to the preservation of the language, poetry, and music of the Highlands.
13 February 1784	William Burness, father of Robert Burns, died at Lochlea. His son wrote his epitaph: “The pitying Heart that felt for human Woe; The dauntless heart that fear’d no human Pride; The Friend of Man. To vice alone a foe; For ‘ev’n his failings lean’d to Virtue’s side’.” From his tombstone in Alloway Churchyard.
20 February 1784	Birth of Adam Black, publisher of the 'Encylopaedia Britannica', in Edinburgh.
22 May 1784	Famous leading English actress Sarah Siddons made her Scottish debut in Edinburgh.
7 December 1784	Birth of Allan Cunningham, poet, editor and biographer, at Blackwood, near Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire. As a child he knew Robert Burns, a friend and neighbour of his father, and followed in his funeral procession in 1796.
5 October 1785	First aerial voyage made in Scotland by Vincentius Lumari, a Florentine, who ascended in a gas balloon from Edinburgh at 3pm and descended a mile eastwards of Ceres, Fife, at 4.30pm. The voyage passed over 20 miles of sea and about 12 of land.
21 October 1785	Death of the noted painter Alexander Runiciman in Edinburgh as he was about to enter his lodgings. He trained at the academy of the brothers Foulis in Glasgow and having attracted the notice of Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, a patron of Scottish Art, studied in Italy from 1766 until 1771.
2 June 1786	Death of Dugald Buchanan, Gaelic religious poet, translator of the Gaelic New Testament, at Kinloch Rannoch. Much of his poetry was influenced by English poets such as William Shakespeare and John Milton, and includes ‘The Greatness of God’, ‘The Day of Judgement’, The Suffering of Christ’, ‘The Skull’, and ‘Winter’.
13 July 1786	‘Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’ by Robert Burns went to John Wilson’s press in Kilmarnock. The success of the ‘Kilmarnock Edition’ changed the poet’s intention to emigrate to the West Indies.
31 July 1786	The first edition of Robert Burns' poems was published by John Wilson, Kilmarnock, "The Kilmarnock Edition", under the title of "POEMS, chiefly in the SCOTTISH DIALECT".
23 October 1786	Professor Dugald Stewart of Edinburgh University met Robert Burns for the first time at his summer residence Catrine House, a few miles from Mossgiel. They were joined for dinner by Basil, Lord Daer, eldest son of the Earl of Selkirk. Dugald Stewart kept the lines written by Burns to mark the occasion – ‘On Dining with Lord Daer’ – which he subsequently sent to Dr Currie along with an account of the meeting. ‘This, wot all ye whom it concerns, I, Rhymer Rab, alias Burns, October twenty-third, A ne’er to be forgotten day! Sae far I sprachl’d up the brae! I dinner’d wi’ a Lord.
27 November 1786	Robert Burns, on a hired horse, left Mossgiel for his first visit to Edinburgh.
28 November 1786	Robert Burns entered Edinburgh on his first visit to the Scottish capital.
20 December 1786	Robert Burns’ poem ‘To A Haggis’ was printed in the pages of the ‘Caledonian Mercury’. It was produced, apparently extempore, by the poet at a dinner held at the Castlehill home of merchant Andrew Bruce two weeks after his arrival in Edinburgh.
1 March 1787	Robert Burns was inaugurated as Poet Laureate of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, Edinburgh.
17 April 1787	Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns’ poems ‘Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’ was published by William Creech (3250 copies).
5 May 1787	Robert Burns set off from Edinburgh on a tour of the Borders on his own mare Jenny Geddes (bought for £4 in the Grassmarket) accompanied by his friend, law student and fellow-Mason Robert Ainslie.
29 June 1787	Robert Burns was granted the Freedom of Dumbarton.
25 August 1787	Robert Burns, accompanied by his friend William Nicol, classical master in the High School of Edinburgh, set out from Edinburgh on His Highland Tour, visiting histories sites and battlefields.
3 September 1787	Weavers rioted against wage cutting in Glasgow. After bricks were thrown, injuring magistrates and military, the soldiers were ordered to fire on the rioters, killing three and fatally wounding three others before the crowd was dispersed.
1 December 1787	The first lighthouse, built at Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh, by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson, lit.
4 December 1787	Robert Burns met Agnes McLehose – Clarinda – for the first time at a tea party in the house of Miss E Nimmo in Edinburgh.
31 January 1788	Prince Charles Edward Stewart, "The Young Pretender", died in Rome.
9 April 1788	Andrew Meikle from East Lothian patented his design for the first practical threshing machine, which greatly improved the efficiency and lowered the costs of corn milling.
5 August 1788	The Mauchline Kirk Session recorded minute recognising Robert Burns and Jean Armour as man and wife, following their previous marriage by declaration. Robert Burns made his peace with the church giving 'a guinea note for behoof of the poor.' Marriage by declaration remained valid in Scotland until 1939.
14 October 1788	First steam boat experiment held on Dalswinton Loch, Dumfriesshire, by Patrick Miller and William Symington. "Triple vessels worked by wheels and cranks... The steam engine could be applied to work the wheels so to give them a quicker motion, and consequently to increase that of the ship." From a pamphlet by Miller
26 October 1788	Death of Admiral Sir Samuel Geirg, Inverkeithing-born ‘Father of the Russian Navy’, on board his own ship The Rotislaw at Tallinn in his 53^rd year. By order of the Empress of Russia his funeral was conducted with great pomp and ceremony.
9 October 1789	The first recorded cricket century to be scored in Scotland was made by the Hon Charles Lennox. He scored 136 not out.
12 October 1789	Birth of William Collins, founder of Collins publishing house, in Glasgow. In 1819 he opened a small bookshop and printing works in Glasgow.
27 December 1788	Robert Burns joined St Andrews Lodge 179, Dumfries, following his move to Ellisland.
11 September 1789	New steamboat service was introduced on the Forth between Newhaven and Grangemouth.
3 December 1789	Steam boat experiment on the Forth and Clyde Canal, organised by pioneer Patrick Miller, failed when the paddle-boards broke off.
5 March 1790	Death of Flora MacDonald at Kilmuir in Skye. "She effected the escape of Prince Charles Edward form South Uist after the battle of Culloden in 1746, and in 1779, when returning from America on board a ship attacked by a French privateer, encouraged the sailors to make a spirited and successful resistance, thus risking her life for both the Houses Stuart and Hanover." From her memorial window in St Columba's Church, Portree
28 June 1790	Forth and Clyde Canal opened. The 35 mile course from Bowling to Grangemouth was the longest of the Lowland canals. It was formally abandoned in 1962.
17 July 1790	Death of Adam Smith, Kirkcaldy-born economist and philosopher, in Edinburgh. He was the author of ‘The Wealth of Nations’.
6 September 1791	Birth of surgeon Robert Knox, who gained a reputation as an outstanding anatomist, in Edinburgh. His career was tarnished by his association with the infamous Irishmen Burke and Hare from whom he obtained cadavers. After Burke was hanged in 1828 a committee investigated Knox’s role in the affair – he was found innocent of any involvement in the murders, but that he should have found out where the cadavers came from.
19 February 1792	Birth of Sir Roderick Murchison, 1^st Baronet, influencial geologist, at Tarradale, Ross-shire. Both as a soldier, he took part in the retreat to Corunna, and geologist, he travelled widely in Europe. He was a founder of the Royal Geographical Society in London and served as President 1843-1845, 1851-1853, 1856-1859 and 1862-1871.
3 March 1792	Death of Robert Adam, architect, interior and furniture designer, in London. Born at Kirkcaldy in 1728, with his brothers James, John and William,he was responsible for many public and private buildings in the neo-classical style, with decorations and furnishings to match eg Dumfries House, the Register House, the Old College, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, and in England at Harewood, Syon, Osterly, Fitzroy Square and the Adelphi, London. He was appointed Architect of the King’s Works in 1761 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
26 July 1792	Associated Friends of the People for Parliamentary Reform was constituated in Edinburgh. A retired army captain William Johnston was elected as President. He started a newspaper Edinburgh Gazeteer to promote its aims.
4 August 1792	Edward Irving, the founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church, was born in Dumfries.
29 September 1792	The Theatre Royal, Dumfries, was opened – Robert Burns was a regular patron and frequently wrote addresses for the actors.
20 October 1792	Birth of Sir Colin Campbell, 1^st Baron Clyde, distinguished soldier who was commander of the Highland Brigade in the Crimea and British forces during the Indian Mutiny, in Glasgow.
13 November 1792	The French Revolutionary army's attack on Brussels was celebrated with bonfires and bell-ringing in Dundee and Perth. The Dundee Magistrates feared insurrection and the 42nd Regiment was despatched north and quartered in both towns.
11 December 1792	First National Convention of the Scottish Friends of the People, formed to demand parliamentary reform, met in Edinburgh.
2 January 1793	Thomas Muir of Huntershill, Glasgow-born Advocate, arrested for sedition. He was released after a few days and went to France, on his return to Scotland, he was tried and sentenced to 14 years transportation.
22 July 1793	Alexander MacKenzie, Stornoway-born explorer, reached Pacific from Canada by land in the first crossing of North America.
27 July 1793	Robert Burns set off on his first Galloway tour in the company of John Syme, a solicitor who held the sinecure post of Distributor of Stamps for Dumfries.
17 August 1793	The Cameron Highlanders were commissioned by Letter of Service to Alan Cameron of Erracht. “Having been favoured with the honour of embodying a Highland Regiment for His Majesty’s service where could I go but to my native Lochaber? And with that desire I have decided on appealing to their forgiveness of bygone events and their loyalty to the Sovereign in his present exigencies.” From a letter of Alan Cameron to his brother Ewen
30 August 1793	Advocate Thomas Muir stood trial for sedition and chose to defend himself. His 'sedition' consisted of advocating a wider franchise, frequent Parliamentary elections and municipal reform. He was found guilty and sentenced to transportation for 14 years. " I have devoted myself to the cause of the people. It is a good cause - it shall ultimately succeed. - Thomas Muir in speech from the dock.
10 February 1794	The 4^th Duke of Gordon was authorised to raise the Gordon Highlanders.
27 April 1794	Death of James Bruce of Kinnaird, ‘The Abyssinian’, British Consul at Algiers, who travelled in Abyssinia following the course of the Nile and found the source of the Blue Nile in 1770.
25 June 1794	Robert Burns set off on his second Galloway Tour.
14 July 1794	Birth of John Gibson Lockhart, son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott, in Wishaw.
19 May 1795	Death of James Bothwell, diarist and biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson.
18 November 1795	The River Clyde, in spate, flooded the centre of Glasgow and brought down a recently erected bridge at the foot of the Saltmarket.
4 December 1795	Birth of Thomas Carlyle, historian, writer and sage, at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. He rose to colossal literary and moral eminence from very humble beginnings. He was elected as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University in 1866.
21 December 1795	Birth of Dr Robert Moffat, Ormiston-born, missionary who worked as a gardener before being accepted by the London Missionary Society and sent to Southern Africa. He worked there, almost continually for 54 years, mainly at Kuruman, Bechuanaland ( Bophuthatswana ). In 1841 he was joined by David Livingstone, who had come to Africa on Moffat's advice and who subsequently married Moffat's daughter, Mary. His grand-son, H U Moffat, became Premier of Southern Rhodesia and unveiled the statue to Livingstone, his uncle, at Victoria Falls.
13 January 1796	Death of John Anderson, aged 69, Professor of Natural philosophy and founder of the Glasgow Institute which bears his name.
17 February 1796	Death of James MacPherson, author of ‘Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland and translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language’ – the Ossianic poems – at Kingussie. “Autumn is dark on the mountains; grey mist rests on the hills. The whirlwind is heard on the heath. Dark rolls the river through the narrow plain. A tree stands alone on the hill and marks the grave of Connal. The leaves whirl round with the wind, and strew the grave of the dead,” From Fragment V, Connal and Crimora
21 July 1796	Death in Dumfries of Robert Burns, Scotland's National Bard. Composer of some 400 songs including the Scottish National Anthem 'Scots Wha Hae'.
25 July 1796	Funeral of Robert Burns in St Michael's Churchyard, Dumfries, while his wife, Jean, was in labour with their ninth child, a son whom she named Maxwell, after the poet's friend Dr William Maxwell.
7 October 1796	Death of Thomas Reid, professor of moral philosophy at Aberdeen and Glasgow, at Glasgow. Born at Strachan, 1710, he countered the scepticism of David Hume with the contention that much of knowledge is intuitive and a priori, the philosophy of “Common Sense”.
26 May 1797	The Reay’s, largely composed of Mackays, defeated a large body of Irish insurgents at Tara Hall. They drove them from a strong position with the loss of some 400 Irish killed and wounded, the Reay’s had only 26 men killed and wounded.
29 August 1797	Battle of Tranent arose from a demonstration against conscription under the Militia Act being broken up by the Cinque Ports Dragoons and the East Lothian Yeomanry with the death of twelve participants. "We declare that we unanimously disapprove of the late Act of the Parliament for raising Six Thousand Militiamen in Scotland. We will assist each other in endeavouring to repeal the said Act. We are peaceably disposed and should you in endeavouring to execute the said Act urge us to adopt coercive measures we must look upon you to be the aggressors and as responsible to the nation for all the consequences that may follow." - from the demonstators' declaration
11 October 1797	Dundee-born Admiral Adam Duncan (1731-1804) led the British fleet to victory over the Dutch at the Battle of Campersown, thereby preventing the Dutch fleet from joining with the French in an invasion of Ireland. He was created 1^st Viscount Camperdown and his exploits were commemorated in a series of paintings and engravings of the battle and of Admiral Duncan himself.
28 August 1798	Death of James Wilson, Fife-born lawyer and signatory of the American Declaration of Independence (1776).
19 January 1799	Death of Peter Williamson, ‘Indian Peter’, tavern keeper, publisher, printer, postmaster and inventor, at Edinburgh. He was kidnapped in his native Aberdeen, aged 13, and sold into slavery in America. On returning to Scotland he owned a coffee house in the Parliament Hall, Edinburgh, which was frequented by Court of Session lawyers and immortalised by the poet Robert Fergusson. He was buried in the Old Calton graveyard. The vacance is a heavy doom On India Peter’s coffee-room, For a’ his china pigs are toom; Nor do we see In wise the sucker biskets soom As lights a flee. ‘The Rising of the Session’ – Robert Fergusson
13 June 1799	Act was passed freeing colliers from servitude to coalmasters, the last vestige of serfdom in Scotland.
26 December 1801	Death of Andrew Lumsden, aged 81, private secretary to Prince Charles Edward Stewart (in Rome) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in Edinburgh.
14 April 1802	Death of John Mackay, eminent botanist and superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh.
10 October 1802	Birth of Hugh Miller of Cromarty on the Black Isle, self-taught geologist, essayist, journalist and author. His pamphlets arguing against the 'intrusion' of ministers through lay patronage won him the support of the Evangelical party within the Church of Scotland and the editorship of 'The Witness' (1835-56), a twice-weekly newspaper representing what became, after the 1843 Disruption, the Free Church. The Edinburgh Review was published with Sydney Smith as its first editor. Its aim was “to erect a higher standard of merit, and secure a bolder and a purer taste of literature, and to apply philosophical principles and the maxims of truth and humanity to politics.” “One day we happened to meet in the eighth or ninth storey or flat in Buccleuch Place, the elevated residence of the then Mr Jeffray. I proposed that we should get up a Review, and this was acceded to with acclamation. I was appointed editor, and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number of the “Edinburgh Review”. The motto I proposed was : ‘Tenui musam meditamur avena, we cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal’, but this was too near the truth to be admitted.” Sydney Smith Preface to his Works (1854) 3.
17 November 1802	Death of Clemintine Walkingshaw, mistress of Prince Charles Edward Stewart, in Switzerland. The couple had one daughter, Charlotte, during their relationship.
4 August 1804	Death of Admiral Adam Duncan, 1^st Viscount Camperdown, hero of the decisive victory over the Dutch fleet under Admiral de Winter at Camperdown off the coast of The Netherlands in 1797, at the Inn, Cornhill-on-Tweed.
29 March 1805	Death of Jean Elliot, poet, third daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto, Lord Justice Clerk for Scotland. Author of the ballad ‘The Flowers of the Forest’, which was published in 1776.
5 June 1805	Edinburgh engraver David Scott and Hugh Adamson, a potter, were executed at Glasgow Cross for forging banknotes.
31 August 1805	Death of Kirkpatrick-Fleming –born Dr James Currie, physician and first editor and major biographer of Robert Burns (1^st edition 1800), of heart failure at Sidmouth, Devon, England.
28 October 1805	Birth of John Thomson, composer, at Sprouston, two miles from Kelso, Roxburghshire, where his father Andrew was minister. He was the inaugural Reid Professor of Music (1838) at Edinburgh University, the first chair of music in Scotland. His output included piano pieces, three operas, leider and choral works, which drew admiration from Mendelssohn. He edited the Vocal Melodies of Scotland which was a favourite of Queen Victoria.
17 March 1806	Death of David Dale, industrialist and philanthropist, founder of the mills at New Lanark, at Rosebank Estate, Cambuslang.
25 April 1806	Birth of Alexander Duff, missionary, near Pitlochry. He was the first missionary sent by the Church of Scotland to India.
1 March 1807	Death of Neil Gow, born at Inver near Dunkeld, 1727, Scotland’s most famous fiddler and composer of the National dance music. “You’ve surely heard o’ famous Niel, The man that played the fiddle weel, I wat he was a canty chiel, And dearly loved the whisky, O, And aye sin he wore tartan hose, He dearly loved the Athole brose, And wae was he, ye may suppose, To bid farewell to whisky, O.” From a song by Miss Agnes Lyon of Glamis to Gow’s tune ‘Fareweel to Whisky’.
25 March 1807	The slave trade in Britain was abolished. Scots were involved on both sides of the heated argument.
16 June 1807	Death of Rev. John Skinner, poet, theologion, Episcopalian minister of Longside in Buchan. His song 'Tullochgorum' was regarded by Robert Burns as "the best Scotch song ever Scotland saw". (letter from Burns to Skinner October 1787).
13 July 1807	Death of Henry Benedict Stewart, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, brother of Charles Edward Stewart and last of the Royal House of Stewart.
17 August 1807	Lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson and his workmen sailed in the ‘Smeaton’ from Arbroath to commence construction of theBell Rock Lighthouse.
9 May 1808	Death of Robert Robertson, ‘The Blind Fiddler’, aged 87, who had fought on the Jacobite side at Culloden, in Dundee. He was buried in The Howff, Dundee’s city cemetery.
9 June 1808	Rev Robert Scott was ordained minister of Glenbuchat, Aberdeenshire. A ballad collector, his manuscript of 68 ballads completed in 1818 was finally published in 2007 under the title – ‘The Glenbuchat Ballads’. He was the author in 1840 of the brief survey of Glenbuchat Parish which later appeared in ‘The New Statistical Account of Scotland’ (1845).
19 August 1808	Birth of James Nasmyth, engineer and inventor of the steam hammer and steam pile-driver, in Edinburgh.
5 September 1808	Death of John Home, former minister at Athelstaneford, historian and playwright. He was noted as the author of the historical drama ‘Douglas’, first produced in Edinburgh in 1756 to the denunciations of the Edinburgh Presbytery, which led to Home’s resignation from the ministry. He later became secretary to Lord Bute, the Prime Minister, and tutor to the Prince of Wales, and was the last Conservator or Consul for Scottish trade with the Netherlands at Veere. “The opinion which the Christian Church has always entertained of stage plays and players as prejudicial to the interest of religion and morality is well known, and the fatal influence which they commonly have on the far greater part of mankind, particularly the younger sort, is too obvious to be called in question,” From the Presbytery’s “Admonition”, 5 January 1757
6 September 1808	Birth of William Livingston, noted Gaelic poet, in Islay. His verse had a strong nationalist slant. “The inherited houses of those who have left us are cold cairns throughout the land. Gone are the Gaels and they shall not return. The cultivation has ceased; there is no more sowing and reaping. The stones of the melancholy larochs bear witness.” From his ‘Fios than a’ Bhaird”
16 January 1809	Glasgow-born soldier Sir John Moore was killed by cannon fire during the Battle of Corunna – the final battle during his troops retreat from Spain. Next day the British army successfully evacuated from the town by sea. “His talents and firmness alone saved the British army from destruction” - Napoleon
22 April 1809	Glasgow weavers met and condemned Westminster Government rejection of their campaign for a scale of minimum prices.
13 August 1809	Forty people were drowned when the passenger boat Frith was wrecked in the Dornoch Firth.
25 March 1810	The Commercial Bank of Scotland was officially founded in Edinburgh by John Pitcairn, Lord Cockburn and others. It was established by a deed of partnership on a joint-stock basis; the first bank not established by public authority to assume national designation.
20 May 1810	“Parish Bank Friendly Society of Ruthwell” was founded by Rev. Henry Duncan – the beginning of Savings Banks.
2 August 1810	Wallace Monument was erected at Wallacetown overlooking Falkirk. The 10-foot memorial was Erected to the memory of that celebrated Scottish Hero Sir William Wallace.
10 November 1810	The Two Brothers of Inverkeithing was sunk near Wainfleet in Lincolnshire in a storm along the east coast of England which wrecked some 400 vessels. The boat owner brothers James and William Miller of Inverkeithing, Fife, and James’ eldest son, also called James, were drowned along with all hands.
9 January 1811	The first women’s golf tournament took place in Scotland at Musselburgh.
1 February 1811	The Bell Rock Lighthouse Lighthouse began operation. Construction under lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson had commenced in 1807.
27 November 1811	Birth of Andrew Meikle, millwright and inventor of the threshing machine, at Dunbar.
18 January 1812	The Comet, the first Scottish passenger steamboat, designed by Henry Bell, of 30 tons burden and 3 H.P. engine, built by John Wood and Co., Port Glasgow, made her trial trip from Glasgow to Greenock. The Comet inaugurated the Scottish steamship building industry.
11 April 1812	Death of Edinburgh-born Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, political hostess and agricultural reformer, in London: she was buried at Kinrara. She instigated plans, together with the minister John Anderson, to establish a village at Kingussie and set up the Badenoch and Strathspey Farming Society in 1803. Famous for taking an active role in the recruitment of soldiers on her husband’s estates for the Gordon Highlanders.
14 May 1812	Death of Glenorchy-born Duncan Ban MacIntyre, Donnchadch Ban Mac an t-Saoir, gamekeeper, Edinburgh city guard and renowned Gaelic poet. Best remembered for his praise-poem ‘Moladh Beinn Dobhrain’ (‘Praise of Ben Doran’ – a hill above Bridge of Orchy), he is recognised as one of the all-time great Gaelic poets.
2 September 1812	Birth of Kirkpatrick MacMillan, blacksmith and inventor of the bicycle, in the parish of Keir, Dumfriessshie.
19 March 1813	Birth of Dr David Livingstone, missionary and legendary African explorer, at Blantyre.
18 January 1814	Birth of James Hedderwick, journalist and poet, who established the Evening Citizen in Glasgow (one of the country's earliest halfpenny newspapers).
15 March 1814	Highland Clearances began in Sutherland. "Patrick Sellar, now or lately residing at Culmaily in the parish of Golspie, and under-factor for the Most Noble the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, you are indicted and accused that, albeit by the laws of this and every other well governed realm, culpable homicide, as also oppression and real injury, the wickedly and maliciously setting on fire and burning a great extent of heath and pasture, on which a number of small tenants and other poor persons maintained their cattle; the violently turning out of their habitations a number of people, especially aged, infirm, and impotent persons, and pregnant women, and cruelly depriving them of all cover or shelter, the setting on fire, burning, pulling down and demolishing the dwelling-houses, barns, kilns, mills and other buildings, and the wantonly setting on fire, burning and otherwise destroying growing corn, timber, furniture, money, and other effects.." From Sellar's indictment, 23 April 1816, at Inverness. Sellar was acquitted.
7 July 1814	The first authentic historical novel, Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Waverley’ was published.
22 September 1814	The Wallace Statue was unveiled in the grounds of Bemersyde House, Dryburgh. In honour of Sir William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland, the statue was commissioned by David Stuart Erskine, 11^th Earl of Buchan, stands 31 feet in height with the actual figure being 21 ½ feet in height. It was sculpted from red sandstone by John Smith of Darnick.
15 July 1815	French Emperor Napoleon surrendered to Rankeillor-born Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland on board the Bellerophos. Maitland had thwarted Napoleon’s plans to escape by sea following his defeat at Waterloo.
19 September 1815	The remains of Robert Burns and his two sons, Maxwell and Francis, were moved to Mausoleum in St Michael's Kirkyard, Dumfries.
4 December 1816	'Meal Riot' in Dundee, described by Sheriff Duff as "one of the greatest in modern times in the country." This followed meal riots in 1733 and 1812 when corn merchants exported grain at a higher price and refused to sell it cheaper locally.
25 January 1817	First issue of The Scotsman newspaper was published by its founders, Charles MacLaren, William Ritchie and John MacDiarmid.
1 April 1817	Blackwood’s Magazine started publication as Edinburgh Monthly Magazine as a Tory response to the Whig influenced Edinburgh Review. Produced by Edinburgh publisher William Blackwood it was re-launched as Blackwood’s Magazine in October 1817. It ceased publication in December 1980.
9 April 1817	Birth of Alexander Thomson (called Greek Thomson), outstanding Glasgow architect, at Balfron, Stirlingshire, the seventeenth of twenty children of John Thomson, bookkeeper, and the ninth of his second wife, Elizabeth Cooper.
22 December 1817	St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Cathedral was opened in Glasgow’s Clyde Street.
4 February 1818	Sir Walter Scott supervised the rediscovery of the Honours of Scotland - the Scottish Crown Jewels - in Edinburgh Castle.
17 February 1818	The ‘lost’ grave of Robert I, King of Scots, The Bruce, (1306-1329), was uncovered by workmen at Dunfermline Abbey.
11 July 1818	The English poet John Keats visited the birth-place of Scotland’s National Bard, Robert Burns, in Alloway and completed his poem ‘Written in the Cottage Where Burns was Born’.
13 June 1819	The Strathnaver Clearances began on the Sutherland Estates, in which families were given about half-an-hour to remove their belongings before their houses were set ablaze, to make way for sheep.
19 August 1819	Death of Greenock-born James Watt, inventor and steam engine pioneer. His improvement to the steam engine was a key stage in the Industrial Revolution. "I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon (on Glasgow Green in May 1765). I was thinking upon the engine and had got as far as the herds' house, when the idea came into my mind that as steam was an elastic body, it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush into it and might be condensed without cooling the cylinder." From his own account to Robert Hart, 1814
25 August 1819	Birth of Allan Pinkerton, founder of the American Pinkerton Detective Agency, in Glasgow.
10 November 1819	George Kinloch, The Radical Laird, organised a public meeting on the Magdalen Green, Dundee, to protest at the brutality of the Westminster Government at the Peterloo Massacre in England. Ten thousand Dundonians turned up to hear Kinloch accuse the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, of "treason against the people" and advocate "one man, one vote".
6 December 1819	George Kinloch, The Radical laird, was arrested and charged with sedition. He fled to France, and then, in disguise, lived in London, England, for three years until he received a Royal Pardon and returned to Dundee.
14 January 1820	Death, in her 88th year, of Agnes Burness, nee Brown, mother of Scotland's National Bard, Robert Burns. She died in the house of her second son Gilbert at Grant's Brae, Haddington, East Lothian.
2 April 1820	The 1820 Rising Proclamation distributed in the west of Scotland. The Radical Rising resulted in the execution of John Baird, Andrew Hardie and James Wilson.
5 April 1820	Battle of Bonnymuir where Radicals led by John Baird and Andrew Hardie were over-whelmed by Government troops. Nineteen Radicals were taken prisoner and lodged in Stirling Castle. Baird and Hardie were subsequently executed for their part in The 1820 Rising.
8 April 1820	Radical prisoners from Paisley were taken under escort to jail in Greenock. The citizens of Greenock fought their escort, the Port Glasgow Militia, until they reached the jail. Still coming under attack the Militia opened fire on the stone throwing crowd killing eight and wounding ten before retreating from Greenock. In the evening the angry Greenockians stormed the jail and freed the prisoners.
6 July 1820	The eighteen radicals taken prisoner at the Battle of Bonnymuir were arrainged.
13 July 1820	Commencement of the trial in Stirling for High Treason of the Radicals captured at the Battle of Bonnymuir. Two of the accused, John Baird and Andrew Hardie, were subsequently executed on 8 September 1820.
24 July 1820	James Wilson, Srathaven Radical, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death for his part in the 1820 Rising. "I am glad to hear that my countrymen are resolved to act like men. We are seeking nothing but the rights of our fore fathers - liberty is not worth having, if it is not worth fighting for."
30 August 1820	James Wilson, Strathaven Radical, hung and beheaded at Glasgow Green for his part in the 1820 Rising. A crowd of 20,000 sympathetic to Wilson, witnessed the event. James Wilson, on his way to the scaffold, remarked to the hangman Thomas Moore - "Did ye evir see sic a crowd, Tammas?"
8 September 1820	John Baird and Andrew Hardie were hung and beheaded for treason in Stirling. They led the Radicals at the Battle of Bonnymuir in April 1820. Nineteen others were transported to New South Wales. "My suffering countrymen! I remain under the firm conviction that I die a Martry in the cause of Truth and Justice, and in the hope that you will soon succeed in the cause which I took up arms to defend" - Andrew Hardie, August 1820.
22 December 1820	The 1820 Radicals, sentenced to transportation to Australia, set sail on the convict ship Speke. Only one, Andrew White, returned when pardoned to Scotland.
2 April 1821	Death of James Gregory, physician and professor of medicine in Edinburgh, whose best known prescription was for Gregory's Powder.
23 May 1821	The 1820 Radicals transported to Australia on the convict ship Speke landed in Port Jackson.
10 January 1822	Edinburgh’s Princes Street was lit by gas for the first time.
29 March 1822	Death of Ewan MacLachlan, Gaelic poet born in Lochaber in 1775, librarian at King's College, Aberdeen, translator of Homer into Gaelic.
8 July 1822	Death of Sir Henry Raeburn, portrait painter and King’s Limner, in Edinburgh. The leading Scottish artist of his generation, Raeburn was knighted by King George IV on his Royal visit to Scotland.
23 October 1822	Opening of the Caledonian Canal, Scotland's longest canal connecting Corpach (near Fort William) with Clachnaharry (near Inverness), about two-thirds of its 60 mile length comprises existing lochs - Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness. One of Thomas Telford's greatest engineering works.
17 June 1823	Charles Macintosh, chemist, born in Glasgow in 1776, patented waterproof cloth. "No.4804. Process and manufacture for rendering the texture of hemp, flax, wool, cotton, silk, and also leather, paper and other substances impervious to water and air." Alphabetical Index of Patents
15 November 1824	Edinburgh's 'Great Fire', began, lasting to the 17th. It destroyed the High Street, Parliament Square and the Tron Kirk. Between 300 and 400 families lost their homes.
24 April 1825	Birth of Robert M Ballantyne, novelist who wrote 90 books including ‘The Coral Island’(1858) and ‘The Dog Crusoe(1860), in Edinburgh.
6 May 1825	Death of Balcarres-born Lady Anne Lindsay Barnard, poet best known for her composition ‘Auld Robin Gray’ written in 1772, in London, England.
21 February 1826	Death of John Kay, noted caricaturist, engraver and miniature painter, in his 84^th year at 227 High Street, Edinburgh.
11 May 1826	The titles and baronetcy, forfeited following the Jacobite Risings, was restored to Sir Peter Threipland of Fingask. The family had been avid Jacobites and took part in both the 1715 and 1746 Risings – Dr Stuart Threipland was medical adviser to Prince Charles Edward Stewart and escaped in 1746 to Rouen.
12 June 1826	Birth of William Alexander, novelist, social historian and journalist. He became editor of the Aberdeen Free Press in 1870 and is best known for his 'Doric' classic 'Johnny Gibb of Guahetneuk'.
7 January 1827	Birth of Sir Sandford Fleming, surveyor and engineer who divided the world into time zones, in Kirkcaldy. At 17 he emigrated to Canada and was Chief Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway and father of the Standard Time System.
23 April 1827	Scottish novelist John Galt, secretary of the Canadian Company, cut the first tree marking the founding of the city of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
9 March 1828	An English gang made off with £28,350 after holding up the Glasgow branch of the Greenock Bank.
15 June 1828	Twenty-eight people died when the north gallery collapsed at The Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy, whilst the congregation listened to noted preacher Edward Irving.
31 October 1828	A beggar woman named Docherty was invited back to a house in Edinburgh by William Burke. William Hare turned up soon after and strangled her. She was the last victim of the infamous Irish body snatchers, for her death was discovered and the police called.
24 December 1828	The trial of grave-robber and murderer William Burke began in Edinburgh. His fellow body-snatcher William Hare turned king’s evidence and was not brought to trial. Burke was hanged on 28 January 1829.
28 January 1829	William Burke, Irish body-snatcher, who joined William Hare in Scotland in selling bodies to Dr Robert Knox for research, and eventually murdering to supplement their stock, was hanged for his crimes in front of a huge crowd in Edinburgh. Hare escaped the gallows by turning king's evidence.
3 August 1829	Start of the Moray floods when the Spey and Findhorn rivers rose 50 feet above normal after torrential rains resulting in many deaths.
16 December 1830	A new five-arch bridge over the River Don at Aberdeen was completed.
23 December 1831	Outbreak of cholera in Scotland.
27 February 1832	Parliamentary Reformers, seeking an extension to the franchise, hissed the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch as they passed through Hawick.
12 April 1832	William Clark, who remembered seeing Cumberland’s Hanoverian army cross the Spey en route for Culloden, died, aged 108, at Newton of Cabrach.
4 June 1832	The Scottish Reform Bill, increasing the number of Scottish MPs from 45 to 53, and thus widening the vote, was passed at Westminster.