← 1808 1807 1806 1805 1804 1809 in Scotland → 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1809 in: The UK • Wales • Ireland • Elsewhere

Events from the year 1809 in Scotland.

Incumbents[edit]

• 
  Monarch – George III
  

Law officers[edit]

• 
  Lord Advocate – Archibald Colquhoun
  


• 
  Solicitor General for Scotland – David Boyle
  

Judiciary[edit]

• 
  Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Avontoun
  


• 
  Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
  


• 
  Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Granton
  

Events[edit]

• 
  c. April – the General Association of Operative Weavers is formed.^[1]
  


• May – a construction railway at the site of Bell Rock Lighthouse is completed.^[2]
  


• August – Crinan Canal declared "finally complete".^[3]
  


• 
  16 August – Meikle Ferry disaster: An overloaded ferry crossing the Dornoch Firth to Tain market sinks, drowning 99.^[4]
  


• November – Thomas Telford certifies completion of his Dunkeld-Birnam bridge.^[5] His bridges at Ballater and Conon Bridge are also completed this year.


• 
  11 November – the North British and Mercantile Insurance company commences business as a fire insurance office in Edinburgh.^[6]
  


• 
  9 December – the Dumfries Courier is established as a weekly newspaper in Annan by Rev. Dr. Henry Duncan as The Dumfries and Galloway Courier.^[7]
  


• 
  Highland Clearances – first commissioner for clearance of the Leveson-Gower family estates in Scotland for sheep farming, William Young, is appointed.


• The Tally Toor, a Martello tower, is erected off Leith.^[8]
  


• A bridge over the River Cart is washed away in a flood.^[9]
  


• 
  Blackie and Son, publishers, are established in Glasgow by John Blackie as Blackie, Fullarton and Company.


• The Scottish Bible Society is established as the Edinburgh Bible Society, a missionary organization, by Christopher Anderson.


• The Caledonian Horticultural Society is established in Edinburgh.


• 
  Arthur Edmondston's A View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands is published.

Births[edit]

• 
  16 February – John Laing, bibliographer and Free Church minister (died 1880)


• 
  20 April – James David Forbes, physicist, glaciologist and seismologist (died 1868 in Bristol)


• 
  7 June – William Forbes Skene, historian (died 1892)


• 
  22 August – John Hill Burton, historian (died 1881)


• 
  27 August – John West, pioneer of food canning (died 1888 in the United States)


• 
  8 September – Robert Reid Kalley, physician and Presbyterian missionary to the lusophone countries (died 1888)


• 
  21 October – John Stenhouse, chemist (died 1880 in London)


• 
  24 October – John Barr, poet (died 1889 in New Zealand)


• 
  29 December – William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born in Liverpool; died 1898 in Wales)


• 
  Alexander Allan, locomotive engineer (died 1891 in England)


• 
  Archibald Campbell, born Douglas, laird (died 1868)

Deaths[edit]

• 
  14 January – Robert Anstruther, British Army general (born 1768; died on active service at Corunna)


• 
  16 January – John Moore, British Army general (born 1761; killed in Battle of Corunna)


• 
  24 January – James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife (born 1729; died in London)


• 
  25 February – John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, colonial governor (born 1730; died in Ramsgate)


• 
  10 May – Andrew Bell, engraver, co-founder of the Encyclopædia Britannica (born 1726)


• 
  3 August – Andrew Mackay, mathematician (born 1760; died in London)


• 
  29 August – Robert Melvill, British Army general and antiquary (born 1723)


• 
  8 October – James Elphinston, philologist (born 1721; died in London)


• 
  18 December – Alexander Adam, classical scholar (born 1741)


• 
  Sir William Douglas, 1st Baronet, landowner and industrialist

See also[edit]

• 1809 in the United Kingdom

References[edit]