• Secretary of State for Scotland: vacant

Law officers edit

• Lord Advocate – Charles Erskine
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Grant of Prestongrange

Judiciary edit

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Culloden
• Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Milton

• 22 May – foundation stone of George Watson's College in Edinburgh is laid.
• Anderston Weavers' Society established in Glasgow.

• 19 May – Sir James Grant, 8th Baronet, politician (died 1811)
• 12 December (bapt.) – William Cochran, portrait painter (died 1785)
• 19 December – James Playfair, minister of religion and scholar (died 1819)
• Alexander Henderson, merchant and politician in Virginia, "father of the American chain store" (died 1815 in the United States)
• Probable date – James Dickson, botanist (died 1822 in London)

• 4 January – George Douglas, 13th Earl of Morton, politician (born 1662)
• 25 March – Robert Murray, British Army officer and politician (born 1689)

• Timeline of Scottish history