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| See also: | List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1856 in: The UK β’ Wales β’ Elsewhere | ||||
Events from the year 1856 in Scotland.
Incumbents
[edit]Law officers
[edit]Judiciary
[edit]- Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General β Lord Colonsay
- Lord Justice Clerk β Lord Glencorse
Events
[edit]- 4 January β Faculty of Actuaries established.
- February β an oak[1] and a yew[2] tree associated with William Wallace at his reputed birthplace of Elderslie are blown down in a storm.
- 1 April β Aberdeen Waterloo railway station opens to serve the Great North of Scotland Railway main line to Keith.
- November β James Clerk Maxwell takes up an appointment as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen.
- 31 December β Lord Brougham's Act requires at least one party to a marriage contracted after this date to have been resident in Scotland for 21 days, putting a curb on Gretna Green marriage.[3]
- Trinity College, Glasgow, established as a Church College of the Free Church of Scotland.
- Dunfermline claims city status in the United Kingdom by historical usage; the status is never officially recognised.[4]
- William McEwan opens McEwan's Fountain Brewery at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh.
- The iron steamboat Thomas is built for service on the Forth and Clyde Canal, origin of the Clyde puffer.
- The Clyde Model Yacht Club, a predecessor of the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club, is established.
Births
[edit]- 30 May β James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, sculptor and poet (died 1938)
- 5 July β Ion Keith-Falconer, road racing cyclist, Arabic scholar and missionary (died 1887 in Aden)
- 15 August β Keir Hardie, socialist and labour leader (died 1915)[5]
- 13 September β Henry Halcro Johnston, botanist, army physician and rugby union international (died 1939)
- 27 November β Matthew Stirling, locomotive engineer (died 1931 in Hull)
- 1 December β Malcolm Smith, Liberal politician (died 1935)
- William W. Naismith, mountaineer (died 1935)
- William Robertson, industrialist (died 1923)
Deaths
[edit]- August β James Bremner, shipbuilder and salvor (born 1784)
- 30 August β John Ross, naval officer and Arctic explorer (born 1777)
- 20 September β Samuel Morison Brown, chemist, poet and essayist (born 1817)
- 23/24 December β Hugh Miller, geologist, by suicide (born 1802)
- 25 February β George Don, botanist (born 1798)
The arts
[edit]- McLellan Galleries opened in Glasgow.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Hight, Julian (2011). Britain's Tree Story. London: National Trust. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-907892-20-2.
- ^ Greenwood, Paul (2005). "William Wallace's Yew". Ancient Yew Group. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ "Lord Brougham Cooling off Act 1856". Gretna Green since 1754. Gretna Green Ltd. Archived from the original on 9 May 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
- ^ Beckett, J. V. (2005). City status in the British Isles, 1830β2002. Historical urban studies. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5067-7.
- ^ "James Keir Hardie (1856β1915)". BBC. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
