1785 in Scotland
{{Short description|none}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2016}}
{{Year in Scotland| 1785 }}
Events from the year 1785 in Scotland.
Incumbents
{{further|Politics of Scotland|Order of precedence in Scotland}}
= Law officers =
= Judiciary =
Events
- 7 March – geologist James Hutton proposes the theory of uniformitarianism to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.{{cite journal|first=James |last=Hutton |title=Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=209–304 |url=http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/hutton/hutton.htm |year=1788 |access-date=2011-10-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030729055405/http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Hutton/Hutton.htm |archive-date=29 July 2003 |df=dmy }}{{cite book|title=The Hutchinson Factfinder|publisher=Helicon|location=Oxford|edition=2nd|year=1999|isbn=1-85986-000-1}}
- Late September – James Boswell’s The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides is published.{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/337|url-access=registration|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|location=London|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/337 337]}}
- 5 October – flight by Florentine aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi in a gas balloon from George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth to Ceres, Fife (32 mi (51.5 km) in 1.5 hrs).{{cite web|title=Notable Dates in History|url=http://scotsindependent.scot/oldsitearchive/scotind/dates1-e.htm|work=The Flag in the Wind|publisher=The Scots Independent|access-date=2016-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125210210/http://scotsindependent.scot/oldsitearchive/scotind/dates1-e.htm|archive-date=25 January 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}
- 23 November – Lunardi flies from St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, to Hawick.{{cite book|first=Vincenzo|last=Lunardi|title=An Account of Five Aerial Voyages in Scotland|url=https://archive.org/details/anaccountfiveae00lunagoog|location=London|year=1786}}
Births
- 18 May – John Wilson, writer (died 1854)
- 18 November – David Wilkie, painter (died at sea 1841)
Deaths
- 23 January – Matthew Stewart, mathematician (born 1717)
- 4 October – Alexander Runciman, painter (born 1736)
- 23 October – William Cochran, painter (born 1738)
The arts
- 22 May – Robert Burns' first child, Elizabeth ("Dear-bought Bess"), is born to his mother's servant, Elizabeth Paton{{cite web|url=http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/PatonElizabeth.705.shtml|title=Paton, Elizabeth|work=The Burns Encyclopedia|access-date=2014-01-28}} and his poems "To a Mouse" and "Halloween" are written.
{{Portal|Scotland}}