1757 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas the younger
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Andrew Pringle of Alemore

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Glendoick
• Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Tinwald

  Events

• 77th Regiment of Foot raised as the First Highland Battalion by Maj. Archibald Montgomerie
• 78th Fraser Highlanders raised as the Second Highland Battalion.
• Macfarlane Observatory established at the University of Glasgow; its instruments are set up by James Watt in his new capacity as the university's instrument maker.
• Physician Francis Home publishes The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation, an early presentation of the chemical principles underlying plant nutrition, in Edinburgh.
• Final rebuilding of Douglas Castle begins.
• Ossian's Hall of Mirrors, a folly at Dunkeld, is built.
• First lighthouse on Little Cumbrae is built.
• Main defences of Fort George completed.
• Robert Adam surveys the ruins of Diocletian's Palace at Spalato in Dalmatia.

  Births

• 27 February
• * Andrew Macdonald, Episcopal clergyman, poet and playwright
• * – David Hume, advocate
• 4 March – George Thomson, musician and collector of traditional music
• April – John Clerk, Lord Eldin, judge
• 9 August – Thomas Telford, civil engineer
• 20 October – Robert Kerr, surgeon and writer
• 13 November – Archibald Alison, Episcopal clergyman and essayist
• 6 December – Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet, general
• James Bonar, lawyer and astronomer
• Robert Brown, agriculturalist
• Andrew Mitchell, admiral

  Deaths

• 19 January – Thomas Ruddiman, classical scholar, librarian and printer
• 20 January – Robert Keith, Episcopal bishop and historian
• 8 March – Thomas Blackwell, classical scholar

  The arts

• William Burness builds Burns Cottage in Alloway; his son, the national poet Robert Burns, will be born here in January 1759.