1754 in Scotland explained

Events from the year 1754 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – William Grant of Prestongrange; then Robert Dundas the younger
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, jointly with Alexander Hume

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – vacant until 22 January; then Lord Glendoick
• Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Tinwald

Events

• 25 March – Lord Harwicke's Marriage Act 1753 "for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage" comes into force in England and Wales, giving increased incentive for couples to contract Border marriages in Scotland.
• 14 May – The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is founded as the Society of St Andrews Golfers, a group of players on St Andrews Links.^[1]
• 22 May – In fiction, the village of Brigadoon disappears into the Highland mist (alternate sources say 1747).
• 11 July – William Burnett establishes the Aberdeen law firm that will continue in business as Burnett and Reid into the 21st century.
• The Select Society is established as The St Giles' Society by a group of 15 Edinburgh intellectuals, part of the Scottish Enlightenment.^[2]
• Old Spey Bridge at Grantown-on-Spey is completed by the military.
• Chemist Joseph Black discovers "carbonic acid gas", i.e. carbon dioxide.

Births

• 9 June – Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth, soldier and clan chief (died 1815)
• 2 August – Lady Charlotte Murray, botanist (died 1808 in Bath)
• 21 August – William Murdoch, inventor (died 1839 in Birmingham)
• Grace Elliott, née Dalrymple, courtesan and socialite (died 1823 in France)
• John Graham, painter (died 1817)
• William John Gray, 13th Lord Gray, soldier (suicide 1807)

Deaths

• 25 March – William Hamilton, exiled Jacobite poet (born 1704)
• 2 June – Ebenezer Erskine, Secessionist minister (born 1680)
• 17 June – George Ross, 13th Lord Ross (born 1681)
• 27 July – Patrick Grant, Lord Elchies, judge (born 1691)
• 19 August
  • John Pringle, Lord Haining, lawyer, politician, judge and landowner (born c. 1674)
  • William Ross, 14th Lord Ross (born c. 1720)
• 23 August – William Cleghorn, philosopher (born 1718)
• 2 September – Alexander Leslie, 5th Earl of Leven (born 1695)

See also

• Timeline of Scottish history

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1754 Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. Scottish Golf History. 2016-02-19.
2. Emerson, Roger L. (1973). The Social Composition of Enlightened Scotland: The Select Society of Edinburgh, 1754–1764. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century.