1831 in Scotland explained

Events from the year 1831 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Francis Jeffrey
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Henry Cockburn

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Granton
• Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Boyle

Events

• Spring – the 12th-century Lewis chessmen are found in a sand-bank on the Isle of Lewis.
• 19–21 March – one of Goldsworthy Gurney’s steam road coaches runs from Edinburgh to Glasgow.^[1]
• May – Wellington Suspension Bridge over River Dee at Aberdeen opened to all traffic.
• 10 May – first steam locomotive to be built in Glasgow completed by Murdoch, Aitken & Co. for the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.^[2]
• Mid-May – mineral traffic over Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway commences.^[3]
• 1 June
  • A regular horse-drawn passenger service between Leaend at Airdrie and Glasgow over the Ballochney, Monkland and Kirkintilloch and Garnkirk and Glasgow Railways commences.^[3]
  • One of Goldsworthy Gurney’s steam road coaches suffers a boiler explosion in Glasgow.^[4]
• 6 June – first iron steamboat to be launched on the River Clyde, Fairy Queen by John Neilson & Sons.^[5]
• 4 July – opening of first section of Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, from St Leonards to Craighall,^[6] including St Leonards Tunnel, Scotland's earliest tunnel on a public railway, and the early cast iron bridge at Braid Burn (erected in March).
• August – the Dugald Stewart Monument in Edinburgh, designed by W. H. Playfair, is completed.
• 1 August – the Roman Catholic St Thomas's Church, Keith, is opened for worship.
• 27 September – formal opening of Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway: locomotive St Rollox hauls Scotland’s first steam-worked passenger train from the Townhead terminus at Glasgow to Gartsherrie.^[3]
• 16 December – opening of first section of Dundee and Newtyle Railway, the first public railway in the north of Scotland (horse worked).
• 23 December – the second cholera pandemic (1829–51) reaches Scotland.^[7]
• The Ardrossan and Johnstone Railway opens as a waggonway from Johnstone to Kilwinning.^[8]
• Dunnet Head lighthouse, designed by Robert Stevenson, is built.
• North Church in Aberdeen, designed by John Smith, is opened.
• The Burns Monument, Edinburgh (on Calton Hill), is designed by Thomas Hamilton.
• William Wallace invents the eidograph.^[9]
• Glenugie distillery is established as Invernettie at Peterhead by Donald McLeod;^[10] Talisker distillery is built at Carbost, Talisker, Skye, by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill.

Births

• 31 January – Alexander Balmain Bruce, theologian (died 1899)
• February – George Stewart, recipient of the Victoria Cross (died 1868 in England)
• 31 March – Archibald Scott Couper, organic chemist (died 1892)
• 2 April – David MacGibbon, architect (died 1902)
• 26 April – James Donaldson, classical scholar, educationalist and theological writer (died 1915)
• 28 April – Peter Tait, mathematical physicist (died 1901)
• 7 May – Richard Norman Shaw, architect (died 1912 in England)
• 28 May – Richard B. Angus, financier (died 1922 in Canada)
• 13 June – James Clerk Maxwell, physicist (died 1879 in England)
• 24 June – Robert Wallace, writer and politician (died 1899 in England)
• 3 July – Edmund Yates, writer (died 1894 in England)
• 18 July – John Skelton, lawyer, author and administrator (died 1897)
• 17 August – John McLaren, politician and judge (died 1910)
• 13 September – Andrew Noble, physicist (died 1915)
• 12 October – Helen Acquroff, pianist, singer, poet and music teacher (died 1887)^[11]
• 17 October – Isa Craig, née Knox, poet (died 1903 in England)
• 23 November – David MacKay, recipient of the Victoria Cross (died 1880)
• 25 December – John Bartholomew, cartographer (died 1893)

Deaths

• 14 January – Henry Mackenzie, novelist (born 1745)
• 4 February – William Ritchie, newspaper editor (born 1781)
• 14 February – Robert Brown, agriculturalist (born 1757)
• 22 March – William Symington, engineer and steamboat builder (born 1764; died in London)
• May – James Campbell, army officer (born 1745)
• 1 July – Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald, industrial chemist (born 1748; died in Paris)
• 16 August – Sir Hugh Innes, politician (born c. 1764)
• 17 August – Patrick Nasmyth, landscape painter (born 1787)
• Joseph Lowe, economist

The arts

• James Hogg publishes Songs, by the Ettrick Shepherd.^[12]
• The Literary and Commercial Society of Glasgow is last known to be active.

See also

• 1831 in Ireland

Notes and References

1. The Glasgow Herald 25 March 1831.
2. The Glasgow Courier 12 May 1831.
3. Book: Martin, Don. The Garnkirk & Glasgow Railway. Strathkelvin District Libraries & Museums. Auld Kirk Museum Publications, no. 6. 1981. 0-904966-06-2. 14–19.
4. The Glasgow Courier 4 June 1831.
5. The Glasgow Herald 10 June 1831.
6. Book: Thomas, John. John Thomas (author). A regional history of the railways of Great Britain, volume VI: Scotland – the Lowlands and the Borders. Newton Abbot. David & Charles. 1971. 0-7153-5408-6. 234.
7. Web site: Chronology of Scottish History. A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. 2014-07-30.
8. Book: Lewin, Henry Grote. 1925. Early British Railways: A short history of their origin and development 1801–1844. London. The Locomotive Publishing Co. 11064369. 17–18.
9. Book: Waterston. Charles D.. Shearer. A. Macmillan. Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index. 2012-01-23. 2. 964 . Royal Society of Edinburgh. 978-0-902198-84-5 . July 2006.
10. Book: Halley, Ned. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Drink. 2005. Ware. Wordsworth Editions. 978-1-84022-302-6. 257. 2008-09-13.
11. Book: Ewan . Elizabeth . Pipes . Rose . Rendall . Jane . Reynolds . Siân . The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women . Edinburgh University Press . 9781474436281 . 4.
12. Book: Cox, Michael. The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. 2004. 0-19-860634-6. registration.