Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

VIRGINIA, prop.n. One of the states of the U.S.A., specif. in Sc. connected with the tobacco trade and the rise of the prosperity of Glasgow in the 18th c. Hence Virginia merchant, -trade and deriv. Virginian, a Glasgow tobacco-merchant. See Tobacco, 4. Hist.Sc. 1773 Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 170:
Copartners in a Virginia trade.Sc. 1832 J. Cleland Enumeration Inhabit. Gsw. 258:
The Virginia trade continued for a considerable time to be carried on by Companies formed as has been described. . . . Prior to the breaking out of the American war the Virginians, who were looked up to as the Glasgow aristocracy, had a privileged walk at the Cross.Sc. 1899 H. G. Graham Social Life I. 130:
In 1772 more than half of all the tobacco imported into the Kingdom was brought to Glasgow, making these Virginia merchants the most prosperous men in Scotland.Sc. 1934 G. Eyre-Todd Hist. Gsw. III. 240, 244:
Andrew [Buchanan] of Drumpellier, born in 1690, had been among the first to take advantage of the opening Virginia trade. . . . He then sold Whitehill to another Virginia merchant, John Wallace.