1840 in Scotland

Events from the year 1840 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Andrew Rutherfurd
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – James Ivory; then Thomas Maitland

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Granton
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Boyle

Events

 * 10 January – Uniform Penny Post introduced throughout the United Kingdom, replacing the Uniform Fourpenny Post of 1839. From 6 May, the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp, becomes valid for prepayment of postage. Advocates of the scheme include Robert Wallace (MP for Greenock) and James Chalmers.
 * 14 January – the first known baptisms by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scotland take place in the River Clyde at Bishopton when Samuel Mulliner, a Scot who joined the church in Canada, baptizes Alexander and Jessie Hay. In May, Orson Pratt preaches from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.
 * July – last known great auk in the British Isles caught and later killed on the islet of Stac an Armin, St Kilda, Scotland.
 * 4 July – the Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia, launched by Robert Duncan & Company at Greenock on 5 February, departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service. Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier is a major partner in the venture and has supplied the ship's engine.
 * 21 July – first burial at the Southern Necropolis in Glasgow.
 * 12 August – the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway is opened throughout between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Ayr, the first inter-urban railway in Scotland.
 * 15 August – foundation stone of the Scott Monument in Edinburgh is laid.
 * 31 August – the Slamannan Railway is opened.
 * Approximate date – Forglen House, designed by John Smith, is completed.

Births

 * 1 January – Dugald Drummond, steam locomotive engineer (died 1912 in England)
 * 24 January – George Smith, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (Catholic) (died 1918)
 * 5 February
 * Charlotte Carmichael, pioneer of higher education for women (died 1929 in England)
 * John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (died 1921 in Ireland)
 * 3 March – Hugh Smellie, steam locomotive engineer (died 1891)
 * 22 April – Thomas Clouston, psychiatrist (died 1915)
 * 15 July – William Wilson Hunter, official of the Indian Civil Service (British India) (died 1900 in England)
 * 29 November – James Crichton-Browne, psychiatrist (died 1938)
 * J. M. Brydon, architect (died 1901 in England)

Deaths

 * 9 March – George Gleig, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (born 1753)
 * 10 April – Alexander Nasmyth, painter (born 1758)