1797 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas of Arniston
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Blair

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Succoth
• Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Braxfield

  Events

• 19 July – Act to Raise and Embody a Militia Force in Scotland.
• 29 August – Massacre of Tranent: British troops attack protestors against enforced recruitment into the militia at Tranent in East Lothian, killing 12.
• 11 October – Battle of Camperdown: Royal Navy led by Dundee-born Admiral Duncan defeats the fleet of the Batavian Republic off the coast of Holland.
• Cloch lighthouse completed.
• Johnston Press established as printers in Falkirk.
• Johnstons of Elgin established as a textile mill in Elgin, Moray.
• Keiller's marmalade first produced in Dundee.
• Publication of Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition is completed in Edinburgh.

  Births

• 29 April – George Don, botanist
• 10 October – Thomas Drummond, military surveyor and Under-Secretary for Ireland
• 14 November – Charles Lyell, lawyer and foremost geologist of his day
• 3 December – Andrew Smith, military surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist

  Deaths

• 26 March – James Hutton, geologist
• 30 December – David Martin, portrait painter and engraver

  The arts

• 24 December – Walter Scott marries Charlotte Carpenter at St Mary's Church, Carlisle, and the couple immediately move into their new home at 50 George Street, Edinburgh.