1776 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Henry Dundas;
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Murray

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
• Lord Justice General – Duke of Queensberry
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

  Events

• 27 February – American Revolution: At the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, Scottish American Loyalists are defeated by North Carolina Patriots. Capt. Allan MacDonald is among those taken prisoner.
• 4 July – American Revolution: United States Declaration of Independence. Fife-born James Wilson and Gifford-born Rev. John Witherspoon are among the signatories.
• Physician Andrew Duncan proposes establishment of the institution that becomes the Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh.
• New Aray Bridge on Inveraray Castle estate, designed by Robert Mylne, is completed.
• Probable – Dunmore Pineapple constructed.

  Publications

• 9 March – Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations is published in London.
• David Dalrymple's Annals of Scotland are published.

  The arts

• David Herd's anthology Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs is published.

  Births

• 23 February – Heneage Horsley, Episcopal dean
• 9 March – Archibald Bell, lawyer and writer
• 11 April – Macvey Napier, lawyer and encyclopedia editor
• 15 April – John Anstruther, nobleman, landowner and colonel
• 11 June – James Gillespie Graham, architect
• 18 July – John Struthers, poet
• 6 October – James Duff, 4th Earl Fife, general in Spanish service
• 13 October – John Gibb, civil engineering contractor
• 7 November – James Abercromby, 1st Baron Dunfermline, lawyer and Whig politician
• 20 November – William Blackwood, publisher
• 30 November – James Jardine, hydraulic engineer

  Deaths

• 2 June – Robert Foulis, printer, publisher and art critic
• 25 August – David Hume, philosopher