1746 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Secretary of State for Scotland: The Marquess of Tweeddale, until 3 January; then vacant until 1885

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Robert Craigie; then William Grant of Prestongrange
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Dundas, the younger; then Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, jointly with Alexander Hume

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Culloden
• Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Milton

  Events

• 8 January – Jacobite rising of 1745: Charles Edward Stuart with his Jacobite forces occupies Stirling.
• 17 January – Battle of Falkirk Muir: British Government troops are defeated by Jacobite forces.
• 1 February – as retreating Jacobite forces remove munitions stored in the church at St. Ninians, it blows up.
• 16 April – the Battle of Culloden, the final pitched battle fought on British soil, brings an end to the Jacobite rising of 1745.
• 27 June – Charles Edward Stuart flees to the Isle of Skye from Benbecula disguised as Flora MacDonald's maid.
• 1 August – Dress Act 1746 proscribes wearing of the tartan.
• 18 August – two rebel Scottish lords, the Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerinoch, are beheaded in the Tower of London.
• 20 September – Charles Edward Stuart escapes to France.
• October – foundation stone of new Inveraray Castle laid.
• British Linen Bank chartered as the British Linen Company.

  Births

• 27 March – Michael Bruce, poet and hymnist
• Approximate date – John Bogle, miniature painter

  Deaths

• 4 February – Robert Blair, "graveyard poet"
• 14 June – Colin Maclaurin, mathematician
• 8 August – Francis Hutcheson, theologian and philosopher
• 6 December – Lady Grizel Baillie, songwriter

  Publications

• Matthew Stewart publishes Some General Theorems of Considerable use in the Higher Parts of Mathematics, including an account of Stewart's theorem on the measurement of the triangle.