1751 in Scotland

Events from the year 1751 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – William Grant of Prestongrange
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, jointly with Alexander Hume

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston the Elder
 * Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Tinwald

Events

 * 24 April – John Wesley arrives at Musselburgh, his destination on his first mission to Scotland.
 * 21 June – Alexander Geddes from Kinnermony, Banffshire, is executed at Aberdeen for bestiality, becoming the last felon in Scotland to be burnt following execution.
 * 1 July – The Cameronians, at this time serving in Ireland, are formally ranked as the 26th Regiment of Foot.
 * David Hume settles in Edinburgh and publishes An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
 * In the University of Glasgow:
 * Adam Smith is appointed professor of logic.
 * The Medical School is founded.
 * John Smith & Son bookshop in Glasgow established, claiming to be the oldest surviving bookseller in the English-speaking world.
 * Culter paper mill established.
 * First turnpike act for Scotland, for improvement of the road from Edinburgh to South Queensferry.
 * Approximate date – bridge built at Bridge of Orchy.

Births

 * 23 April – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, colonial administrator (died 1814 in England)
 * 3 or 29 June – William Roxburgh, surgeon and botanist, "father of Indian botany" (died 1815)
 * 2 August – William Adam of Blair Adam, judge and politician (died 1839)
 * 8 August – William Leslie, British Army officer (killed 1777 at Battle of Princeton)
 * 10 December – James Donaldson, printer, newspaper publisher and philanthropist (died 1830)
 * Donald Campbell, traveler in India and the Middle East (died 1804 in England)
 * Approximate date – Helen Craik, novelist and poet (died 1825 in England)

Deaths

 * 16 February – Charles Maitland, politician (born c. 1704)
 * 18 February – Patrick Campbell, politician (born 1684)
 * 24 May – William Hamilton, comic poet (born c. 1665)
 * 22 August (2 September NS) – Andrew Gordon, Benedictine and inventor (born 1712; died in Saxony)
 * September – David Fordyce, philosopher (born 1711; lost at sea)

The arts

 * Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair publishes his anti-Hanoverian volume of poems Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich ("The Resurrection of the Ancient Scottish Language") in Edinburgh, including his satire on the aisling form An Airce ("The Ark").
 * Tobias Smollett's novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle is published.
 * Robert Louis Stevenson's book "Kidnapped" is based in 1751.