1817 in Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Events from the year 1817 in Scotland.
See also:List of years in Scotland
Timeline of Scottish history
1817 in: The UK ⢠Wales ⢠Elsewhere
Timeline of Scottish history
1817 in: The UK ⢠Wales ⢠Elsewhere
Incumbents
Law officers
Judiciary
Events
- 25 January â The Scotsman is first published in Edinburgh as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie and customs official Charles Maclaren.[1]
- 1 March â suffocating fumes in the Leadhills lead mine kill seven.[2]
- 1 April â Blackwood's Magazine is launched as the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, a Tory publication. In October the publisher, William Blackwood, relaunches it as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
- 20 May â Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow founded by Thomas Hopkirk and others to establish a Glasgow Botanic Garden.[3]
- June â Union Canal authorised.
- 10 July â David Brewster patents the kaleidoscope.[4]
- 15 October â school of whales seen in the Tay.
- November â Thomas Chalmers, in a sermon, appeals for a Christian effort to deal with the social condition of Glasgow.[5]
- 4 December â The Inverness Courier is first published as a newspaper by John and Christian Isobel Johnstone.
- Dingwall Canal completed.[6]
- A typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- Dufftown founded by James Duff, 4th Earl Fife, in Moray.
- St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen, opened as St Andrew's Chapel within the Episcopal Church.
- Calton Gaol, Edinburgh, completed.
- Old Tolbooth, Edinburgh, demolished.
- Glasgow Botanic Gardens created.
- Corsewall Lighthouse, designed by Robert Stevenson, first illuminated.[7]
- Thomas Telford's ferry piers at Invergordon and Inverbreakie are built.
- Bladnoch distillery founded by John and Thomas McClelland near Wigtown.
- Teaninich distillery founded by Hugh Munro at Alness.
- The post of Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow is established by King George III.
- Approximate date â the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway introduces into service The Duke, the first steam locomotive on a railway in Scotland.
Births
- February â Samuel Morison Brown, chemist, poet and essayist (died 1856)
- 15 February â Robert Angus Smith, atmospheric chemist (died 1884)
- 28 February â Walter Hood Fitch, botanical artist (died 1892)
- 9 April â Alexander Thomson, Greek Revival architect (died 1875)
- 29 April â Adam White, zoologist (died 1878)
- 17 May
- Thomas Davidson, palaeontologist (died 1885)
- John Ross, explorer (died 1903 in Australia)
- 22 May â James Macaulay, physician and literary editor (died 1902)
- 1 June â David Lyall, botanist (died 1895)
- 16 June â Alexander Forbes, bishop of Brechin (died 1875)
- 25 August â William Graham, wine merchant, art patron and Liberal politician (died 1885)
- 8 September â Stephen Hislop, Free Church missionary and geologist (died 1863 in India)
- 16 September â William Smith, architect (died 1891)
- 21 September â John Allan Broun, magnetologist (died 1879)
- 12 October â William Collins, publisher, Lord Provost of Glasgow and temperance activist (died 1895)
- 17 October â Alexander Mitchell, banker, railroad financier and Democratic politician (died 1887 in the United States)
- 29 October â Angus Macmillan, shipbuilder and politician on Prince Edward Island (died 1906 in Canada)
- 4 December â Thomas Thomson, military surgeon and botanist (died 1878 in India)
- 10 December â Alexander Wood, physician and inventor of the hypodermic syringe (died 1884)
- John Millar, Lord Craighill, Solicitor General (died 1888)
- Approximate date â Marion Kirkland Reid, feminist (died 1902?)
Deaths
- 8 February â Francis Horner, Whig politician, journalist, lawyer and political economist (born 1778; died in Italy)
- 3 September â James Byres of Tonley, art dealer (born 1734)
- 2 October â Alexander Monro, anatomist (born 1733)
- 8 October â Henry Erskine, lawyer and Whig politician (born 1746)
The arts
- 19 September â the body of poet Robert Burns (died 1796) is moved to a new mausoleum in Dumfries.[8]
- 31 December â Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy is published anonymously.