# 1808 in Scotland

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Events from the year 1808 in Scotland.

## Incumbents
### Law officers

* Lord Advocate – Archibald Colquhoun
* Solicitor General for Scotland – David Boyle

### Judiciary

* Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Succoth to 31 August; then Lord Avontoun
* Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
* Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Granton

## Events

* January – Christopher Anderson begins missionary work in The Pleasance district of Edinburgh, which will lead to his taking over the Charlotte Chapel.
* 2 March – inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held in Edinburgh under the presidency of Prof. Robert Jameson.
* 21 May – Thomas Telford's Tongland bridge is fully completed.
* 27 May – the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway becomes the first railway line in Scotland to be authorised by Act of Parliament.
* 7 June – first meeting at the Bogside Racecourse, Irvine.
* October – Thomas Telford's Dunkeld–Birnam bridge is opened to road traffic.
* John Rennie's new Musselburgh Bridge (over the Esk) is completed.
* Court of Session Act reforms the Court of Session.
* Broadford flax mill is established in Aberdeen, the earliest iron-framed textile mill in Scotland.
* William Blackwood begins publication of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, edited by David Brewster.
* Travel writer Sir John Carr publishes Caledonian Sketches, or a Tour through Scotland in 1807.

## Births

* 22 January – James Fergusson, architectural historian (died 1886 in London)
* 29 February – Hugh Falconer, geologist, botanist, paleontologist and paleoanthropologist (died 1865 in London)
* 9 May – John Scott Russell, shipbuilder (died 1882 on the Isle of Wight)
* 11 June – James Ballantine, painter (died 1877)
* 16 June – James Frederick Ferrier, metaphysical and epistemological philosopher (died 1864)
* 2 July – Thomas Simpson, Arctic explorer (probable suicide 1840 in the United States)
* 19 August – James Nasmyth, mechanical engineer (died 1890 in England)
* 24 August – William Lindsay Alexander, church leader (died 1884)
* c. 7 or 8 September – William Livingston (Uilleam Macdhunleibhe), Gaelic poet (died 1870)
* 15 September – John Hutton Balfour, botanist (died 1884)
* 21 September – Evan MacColl, poet writing in Gaelic and English (died 1898 in Canada)
* 19 December – Horatius Bonar, Free Church minister and hymnodist (died 1889)
* James Gall, evangelical minister, astronomer and cartographer (died 1895)
* David Moore, born Muir, botanist (died 1879 in Ireland)
* David Rhind, architect (died 1883)
* James Aitken Wylie, Free Church minister and religious historian (died 1890)

## Deaths

* 20 January – Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho (born 1749)
* 28 January – James Finlayson, minister of the Church of Scotland (born 1758)
* 13 February – William Fullarton, British Army officer, agriculturalist and colonial governor (born 1754; died in London)
* 19 June – Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer (born 1737)
* 2 July – Robert Arnot, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (born 1744)
* 21 August – John Adamson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (born 1742)
* 23 August – Robert Small, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, mathematician and astronomer (born 1732)
* 5 September – John Home, Episcopalian minister, playwright and writer (born 1722)
* 20 September – John Elliot, Royal Navy officer (born 1732)
* 15 October – James Anderson of Hermiston, agriculturalist (born 1739)
* 24 October – Francis Wemyss-Charteris, landowner (born 1723)

## The arts

* Walter Scott's poem Marmion: a tale of Flodden Field is published in Edinburgh.