1698 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – William II
• Secretary of State – John Murray, Earl of Tullibardine, jointly with James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Seafield

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir James Stewart
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Sir Patrick Hume

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – vacant?? until 17 March, then Lord North Berwick
• Lord Justice General – Lord Lothian
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Ormiston

  Events

• Famine in the Borders leads to continued Scottish Presbyterian migration from Scotland to Ulster.
• 14 July – first expedition sets sail as part of the Darien scheme.
• November – colony of New Caledonia established on the Isthmus of Panama.

  Births

• February – Colin Maclaurin, mathematician
• 11 July – George Turnbull, philosopher, theologian, teacher and writer

• Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Gaelic poet
• Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, landowner, Privy Counsellor and Vice Admiral of Scotland
• John Gow, pirate

  Deaths

• John Leslie, 10th Earl of Rothes, Army officer