← 1788 1787 1786 1785 1784 1789 in Scotland → 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794
Centuries:	16th 17th 18th 19th 20th
Decades:	1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1789 in: Great Britain • Wales • Ireland • Elsewhere

Events from the year 1789 in Scotland.

Incumbents[edit]

• 
  Monarch – George III
  

Law officers[edit]

• 
  Lord Advocate – Ilay Campbell; then Robert Dundas of Arniston
  


• 
  Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Dundas of Arniston; then Robert Blair
  

Judiciary[edit]

• 
  Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Glenlee until 27 September; then from 26 October Lord Succoth
  


• 
  Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
  


• 
  Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Braxfield
  

Events[edit]

• 10 July – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta in North America.


• November – foundation stone for Old College, University of Edinburgh, laid.


• December – steamboat experiments on the Forth and Clyde Canal by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton.


• The original lighthouses at Eilean Glas on Scalpay, Outer Hebrides, and Dennis Head Old Beacon on North Ronaldsay, Orkney, are completed by Thomas Smith.


• 
  Robert Adam designs a new house at Newliston.


• 
  Andrew Duncan delivers the first lectures on forensic medicine in Britain, at the University of Edinburgh.^[1]
  


• The Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society is founded by James McGrigor and James Robertson.


• 
  Robert Burns is appointed an exciseman.


• New pump room for St Bernard's Well, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, designed by painter Alexander Nasmyth.


• 
  John Ainslie completes and publishes his 9-sheet map of Scotland.


• 
  Flax mill established at Old Deer.


• 
  Clyde Model Dockyard is established as a toyshop in Glasgow.

Births[edit]

• 5 January – Thomas Pringle, writer, poet and abolitionist (died 1834)


• 28 February – David Duncan, Presbyterian minister (died 1829)


• 17 August – William Knox, poet and journalist (died 1825)


• 12 October – William Collins, publisher (died 1853)


• 30 October – Michael Scott, author (died 1835)


• November – Peter Miller Cunningham, naval surgeon and pioneer in Australia (died 1864 in Greenwich)


• 3 December – Archibald Robertson, physician (died 1864 in Bristol)


• 20 December – William Burn, architect, pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style (died 1870)


• 23 December – George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton, Tory politician (died 1858)


• 
  Thomas Wright, prison visitor (died 1875 in Manchester)

Deaths[edit]

• 17 March – Sir Charles Douglas, 1st Baronet, admiral (born 1727)


• 27 September – Thomas Miller, Lord Glenlee, judge and politician (born 1717)

Sport[edit]

• 9 October – the first recorded cricket century to be scored in Scotland is made by the Hon. Colonel Charles Lennox: he scores 136 not out.^[2]
  

References[edit]