Events from the year 1831 in Scotland .
Incumbents
Law officers
Judiciary
Events
Spring – the 12th-century Lewis chessmen are found in a sand-bank on the Isle of Lewis .
19 –21 March – one of Goldsworthy Gurney ’s steam road coaches runs from Edinburgh to Glasgow.[ 1] May – Wellington Suspension Bridge over River Dee at Aberdeen opened to all traffic.
10 May – first steam locomotive to be built in Glasgow completed by Murdoch, Aitken & Co. for the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway .[ 2] Mid-May – mineral traffic over Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway commences.[ 3]
1 June
6 June – first iron steamboat to be launched on the River Clyde , Fairy Queen by John Neilson & Sons.[ 5] 4 July – opening of first section of Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway , from St Leonards to Craighall,[ 6] cast iron bridge at Braid Burn (erected in March).August – the Dugald Stewart Monument in Edinburgh, designed by W. H. Playfair , is completed.
1 August – the Roman Catholic St Thomas's Church, Keith , is opened for worship.27 September – formal opening of Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway : locomotive St Rollox hauls Scotland’s first steam-worked passenger train from the Townhead terminus at Glasgow to Gartsherrie.[ 3] 16 December – opening of first section of Dundee and Newtyle Railway , the first public railway in the north of Scotland (horse worked).[ 7] 23 December – the second cholera pandemic (1829–51) reaches Scotland.[ 8] The Ardrossan and Johnstone Railway opens as a waggonway from Johnstone to Kilwinning .[ 9]
Dunnet Head lighthouse , designed by Robert Stevenson , is built.North Church in Aberdeen , designed by John Smith , is opened.The Burns Monument, Edinburgh (on Calton Hill ), is designed by Thomas Hamilton .
William Wallace invents the eidograph .[ 10] Glenugie distillery is established as Invernettie at Peterhead by Donald McLeod;[ 11] Talisker distillery is built at Carbost , Talisker, Skye , by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill.
Births
31 January – Alexander Balmain Bruce , theologian (died 1899 )February – George Stewart , recipient of the Victoria Cross (died 1868 in England)
31 March – Archibald Scott Couper , organic chemist (died 1892 )2 April – David MacGibbon , architect (died 1902 )26 April – James Donaldson , classical scholar, educationalist and theological writer (died 1915 )28 April – Peter Tait , mathematical physicist (died 1901 )7 May – Richard Norman Shaw , architect (died 1912 in England)28 May – Richard B. Angus , financier (died 1922 in Canada )13 June – James Clerk Maxwell , physicist (died 1879 in England)24 June – Robert Wallace , writer and politician (died 1899 in England)3 July – Edmund Yates , writer (died 1894 in England)18 July – John Skelton , lawyer, author and administrator (died 1897 )17 August – John McLaren , politician and judge (died 1910 )13 September – Andrew Noble , physicist (died 1915 )12 October – Helen Acquroff , pianist, singer, poet and music teacher (died 1887 )[ 12] 17 October – Isa Craig , née Knox, poet (died 1903 in England)23 November – David MacKay , recipient of the Victoria Cross (died 1880 )25 December – John Bartholomew , cartographer (died 1893 )
Deaths
14 January – Henry Mackenzie , novelist (born 1745 )4 February – William Ritchie , newspaper editor (born 1781 )14 February – Robert Brown , agriculturalist (born 1757 )22 March – William Symington , engineer and steamboat builder (born 1764 ; died in London)May – James Campbell , army officer (born 1745 )
1 July – Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald , industrial chemist (born 1748 ; died in Paris)16 August – Sir Hugh Innes , politician (born c. 1764)17 August – Patrick Nasmyth , landscape painter (born 1787 )Joseph Lowe , economist
The arts
See also
References
^ The Glasgow Herald ^ The Glasgow Courier 12 May 1831.^ a b c Martin, Don (1981). The Garnkirk & Glasgow Railway . Auld Kirk Museum Publications, no. 6. Strathkelvin District Libraries & Museums. pp. 14– 19. ISBN 0-904966-06-2 ^ The Glasgow Courier 4 June 1831.^ The Glasgow Herald 10 June 1831.^ Thomas, John (1971). A regional history of the railways of Great Britain, volume VI : Scotland – the Lowlands and the Borders . Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 234. ISBN 0-7153-5408-6 ^ Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies ISBN 1-8526-0049-7 OCLC 19514063 . CN 8983.^ "Chronology of Scottish History" . A Timeline of Scottish History . Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 30 July 2014 .^ Lewin, Henry Grote (1925). Early British Railways: A short history of their origin and development 1801–1844 . London: The Locomotive Publishing Co. pp. 17– 18. OCLC 11064369 . ^ Waterston, Charles D.; Shearer, A. Macmillan (July 2006). Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index (PDF) . Vol. 2. Royal Society of Edinburgh . p. 964. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5 . Retrieved 23 January 2012 . ^ Halley, Ned (2005). The Wordsworth Dictionary of Drink ISBN 978-1-84022-302-6 . Retrieved 13 September 2008 . ^ Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân (eds.). The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women . Edinburgh University Press. p. 4. ISBN 9781474436281 ^ Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature ISBN 0-19-860634-6
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