1840 in Scotland
Events from the year 1840 in Scotland.
Incumbents
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, 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
- 24 January – George Smith, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (Catholic)
- 5 February
- * Charlotte Carmichael, pioneer of higher education for women
- * John Boyd Dunlop, inventor
- 3 March – Hugh Smellie, steam locomotive engineer
- 22 April – Thomas Clouston, psychiatrist
- 15 July – William Wilson Hunter, official of the Indian Civil Service (British India)
- 29 November – James Crichton-Browne, psychiatrist
- J. M. Brydon, architect