1717 in Scotland

Events from the year 1717 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland: The Duke of Roxburghe

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Baronet
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Sir James Stewart, Bt (possibly jointly with Robert Dundas)

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord North Berwick
 * Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Grange

Events

 * 1 January – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.
 * February – as part of the Triple Alliance treaty between Britain and France, James Stuart leaves France and seeks refuge with the Pope.
 * July – Indemnity Act frees most Jacobites from imprisonment. The Clan Gregor are specifically excluded.
 * Horse post introduced between Glasgow, Edinburgh and points north.
 * Carrbridge Packhorse Bridge built.
 * Drummonds Bank is founded in London by Scottish goldsmith Andrew Drummond.
 * Approximate date – the seminary at Scalan begins to train Roman Catholic priests.

Births

 * 28 February – Alexander Colville, 7th Lord Colville of Culross, British Royal Navy admiral (died 1770)
 * 28 June – Matthew Stewart, mathematician (died 1785)
 * 29 June (bapt.) – James Robertson, British Army officer, governor of New York (died 1788 in London)
 * July – William Duncan, natural philosopher and classicist (died 1760)
 * 10 October – Sir Archibald Edmonstone, 1st Baronet, politician (died 1807 in London)
 * 3 November – Thomas Miller, Lord Glenlee, judge and politician (died 1789)

Deaths

 * 19 March – John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, royalist (born 1636)
 * August – William Cochrane, Member of the Parliament of Great Britain (born after 1659)
 * November – John Slezer, military engineer and topographical artist (born before 1650 perhaps in Germany)
 * William Boyd, 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock, nobleman