Events from the year 1780 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers Lord Advocate – Henry Dundas; Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Murray
Judiciary Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming
Events 31 May – James Watt patents a copying machine.English Patent 1,244, accepted 14 February. 18 December – the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is formed. Dalmally Bridge built. Böd of Gremista built in Lerwick. Approximate date James Small produces a two-horse swing plough using Carron Company iron. Kilcalmonell Parish Church at Clachan, Kintyre, is rebuilt.
Births 15 February – William Laird, shipbuilder (died 1841 in Birkenhead) 26 February – Alexander Allan, shipowner (died 1854) 17 March – Thomas Chalmers, Free Church leader (died 1847) 3 April – Walter Newall, architect and civil engineer (died 1863) 30 August – James Howe, animal and portrait painter (died 1836) 10 October – John Abercrombie, physician and philosopher (died 1844) 16 November – Robert Archibald Smith, composer (died 1829) 5 December – Patrick Sellar, lawyer, factor and sheep farmer instrumental in the Highland Clearances (died 1851) 26 December – Mary Somerville, née Fairfax, mathematician (died 1872 in Naples) David Buchan, naval officer and Arctic explorer (lost at sea 1838) Colquhoun Grant, British Army officer (died 1829 in Aachen) Robert Pinkerton, Bible missionary (died 1859 in Reigate) Andrew Wilson, landscape painter (died 1848)
Deaths 7 October – Patrick Ferguson, British Army officer and designer of the Ferguson rifle (born 1744; killed in Battle of Kings Mountain) 26 November – Sir James Steuart Denham, economist (born 1712)
Sport Royal Aberdeen Golf Club founded as the 'Society of Golfers at Aberdeen'.
See also
Timeline of Scottish history
References