Law officers edit

• Lord Advocate – Thomas Miller of Glenlee
• Solicitor General for Scotland – James Montgomery jointly with Francis Garden; then James Montgomery alone

Judiciary edit

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
• Lord Justice General – Duke of Queensberry
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Minto

• 3 January – Edinburgh Advertiser newspaper begins publication.
• November – The Speculative Society established in Edinburgh as a debating group, part of the Scottish Enlightenment.
• New Byth established as a planned village in Aberdeenshire by the local laird.
• New liturgy for the Scottish Episcopal Church published in Edinburgh.^[1]
• The turnip is first cultivated in Scotland as a field crop, by Dawson of Frogden (Roxburghshire).^[2]
• Howden Bridge built at Mid Calder.
• Approximate date – Yair Bridge built across the River Tweed by William Mylne.^[3]

• c. 1 February – George Duff, naval officer (killed 1805 at Battle of Trafalgar)
• 22 February – Alexander Campbell, musician and miscellaneous writer (died 1824)
• 5 May – Robert Craufurd, general (killed 1812 at Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo)
• 11 July – Jane Aitken, printer (died 1832 in the United States)
• 5 October – Isaac Cruikshank, painter and caricaturist (died 1811 in London)
• 10 October – John Dick, minister and theologian (died 1833)
• October – William Symington, mechanical engineer, steamboat pioneer (died 1831 in London)
• 6 November – Robert Heron, writer (died 1807 in London)
• Alexander Mackenzie, explorer of northern Canada (died 1820)

• 23 May – William Grant, Lord Prestongrange, politician and judge (born 1701; died at Bath)

• Pompeo Batoni paints portraits of Thomas Dundas and Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon in Rome.

• Timeline of Scottish history