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Adam, William

1689-1748

William Adam was the son of a builder. He was born near Kirkcaldy in Fife. Although architecture was to be his main profession he was quite an entrepreneur. Business interests ranged from barley and timber mills to salt pans and coal works. William gained the patronage of many influential men in Scotland. He built houses for the Earl of Hopetoun, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik and Lord Braco. With the money he made from his work he bought the estate of Blair Crambeth in Kinross-shire and promptly renamed it Blair Adam. In 1730 he was appointed Mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain. This post was to provide lucrative fortification contracts after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. William's collection of engravings of his own work and that of his contemporaries was posthumously published as Vitruvius Scoticus in 1812. William married Mary Robertson in 1716 and together they had four sons and six daughters. His sons Robert and James would be in their time the most prominent architects in the United Kingdom. William is buried in Greyfriars kirkyard in a tomb designed by his son John.

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