1723 in Scotland

Events from the year 1723 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland: The Duke of Roxburghe

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – John Sinclair, jointly with Charles Binning

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 8 June – The Honourable Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland is formed in Edinburgh by over 300 landowners, part of the Scottish Enlightenment.
 * 11 November – 18 people drown in the River Tweed near Melrose when a ferry boat capsizes.

Births

 * 3 February – Catherine Read, portrait painter (died 1778 at sea)
 * c. 5 February (16 February NS) – John Witherspoon, Presbyterian minister, a Founding Father of the U.S. and President of the College of New Jersey (modern-day Princeton University; died 1794 in the United States)
 * 23 February – William Chambers, architect (born in Gothenburg; died 1796 in London)
 * 5 June (baptized; 16 June NS) – Adam Smith, economist and philosopher (died 1790)
 * 20 June (1 July NS) – Adam Ferguson, philosopher and social historian (died 1816)
 * 29 August – William Dalrymple, Church of Scotland minister (died 1814)
 * Lady Anne Farquharson-MacKintosh, Jacobite (died 1784)
 * Gavin Hamilton, neoclassical history painter, archaeologist and dealer (died 1798 in Rome)
 * Francis Peacock, "father of Scottish country dance" (died 1807)

Deaths

 * 3 April – George Watson, accountant and benefactor (born 1654)

The arts

 * Mavisbank House in Midlothian is designed by William Adam in collaboration with his client, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, and construction begins; it is the first Palladian villa in Scotland.
 * Cairney-born painter William Aikman settles in London as a portraitist under the patronage of John Campbell, Duke of Argyll.