1783 in Scotland

Events from the year 1783 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Henry Dundas; then Henry Erskine
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Murray; then Ilay Campbell jointly with Alexander Wight

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
 * Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

Events

 * 1 January – Glasgow Chamber of Commerce is founded by Patrick Colquhoun, the first in Britain.
 * 27 January – The Herald newspaper begins publication as the weekly Glasgow Advertiser (with news of the Peace of Paris); it will become the longest continually-published daily in Britain.
 * 29 March – the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh are chartered.
 * Halbeath Railway opens from the colliery at Halbeath (in the Fife Coalfield) to the harbour at Inverkeithing.
 * Elspeth Buchan proclaims herself in Irvine as possessed of heavenly powers, leading to the formation of a Society of Buchanites.

Births

 * 5 April – Andrew Geddes, portrait painter and etcher (died 1844 in London)
 * 8 April – John Claudius Loudon, horticulturalist (died 1843 in London)
 * 24 April – James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford (died 1869 in England)
 * 11 June – James Baillie Fraser, travel writer (died 1856)
 * 15 June – Donald Mackenzie, explorer in North America (died 1851 in the United States)
 * 27 June – Adam Anderson, physicist (died 1846)
 * 6 September – George Hogarth, newspaper editor, music critic, musicologist and father-in-law of Charles Dickens (died 1870 in London)
 * 22 October – James Henry Keith Stewart, Tory Member of Parliament (died 1836)
 * John Finlaison, actuary (died 1860 in London)
 * William Glen, poet (died 1826)
 * Peter Grant (Pàdraig Grannd nan Oran), Baptist minister and songwriter in Gaelic (died 1867)
 * Norman Macleod (Caraid nan Gaidheal), Church of Scotland minister and writer in Gaelic (died 1862)
 * Richard Poole, physician, psychiatrist, and phrenologist (died 1871)

Deaths

 * 30 March – William Hunter, anatomist (born 1718; died in London)
 * 2 June – Charles Spalding, confectioner and diver (born 1738; died on dive in Dublin Bay)
 * 27 August – John Glassford, tobacco merchant (born 1715)

The arts

 * The Glasgow engraving and publishing firm J. Lumsden and Son, which becomes known for children's books, is founded.