William Adam (1689 – 24 June 1748) was a Scottish architect, mason, and entrepreneur. He was the foremost architect of his time in Scotland,McWilliam, p.57Glendinning, et al. (1999) p.48 designing and building numerous country houses and public buildings, and often acting as contractor as well as architect. Among his best known works are Hopetoun House near Edinburgh, and Duff House in Banff. His individual, exuberant style built on the Palladian style, but with Baroque details inspired by Vanbrugh and Continental architecture.
In the 18th century, Adam was considered Scotland's "Universal Architect".John Clerk of Eldin first used the term "Universal Architect" to describe Adam, in his unpublished Life of Robert Adam. Gifford (1990) p.1 However, since the early 20th century, architectural critics have taken a more measured view, Colin McWilliam, for instance, finding the quality of his work "varied to an extreme degree". As well as being an architect, Adam was involved in several industrial ventures and improvement schemes, including coal mining, salt panning, stone quarries and mills. In 1731 he began to build up his own estate in Kinross-shire, which he named Blair Adam. He was the father of three architects; John, Robert and James, the last two were the developers of the "Adam style".
Biography
Early life William Adam was born in Linktown of Abbotshall, now a neighbourhood of Kirkcaldy, Fife, and was baptised on 24 October 1689. He was the only surviving child of John Adam (d. c. 1710), a mason, and Helen Cranstoun, daughter of William Cranstoun, 3rd Lord Cranstoun. His paternal grandfather was Archibald Adam, a laird in Angus.Gifford (1989), pp.68 & 75 Adam probably attended the grammar school in Kirkcaldy until 1704, when he turned 15, and thereafter learned the craft of masonry, possibly from his father. It is often suggested that Adam was apprenticed to Sir William Bruce at Kinross House, although the dates make this unlikely. John Fleming suggests that if Adam trained under Bruce at all, it must have been at Hopetoun House which Bruce was building from 1699 to 1703.Kinross was under construction from 1686. Fleming, pp.6–7 By 1717 Adam was a fully qualified member of the Kirkcaldy masons' guild,Gifford (1989), p.72 and before 1720 he travelled to France and the Low Countries, visiting country houses and viewing the canal at Ostend.
In 1714, Adam entered into a partnership with William Robertson of Gladney, a local laird, to set up a brickworks at Linktown. The venture was successful, and Adam has been credited with introducing the manufacture of Dutch pantiles into Scotland.Gifford (1989), pp.73–74 On 30 May 1716, Adam married Robertson's daughter Mary, and the couple moved into his home, Gladney House, at Abbotshall.Gifford (1989), p.75
Rise to fame It is not known how William Adam became a successful architect from these beginnings, but by 1721 he was engaged on major projects at Floors Castle, where he executed a design by Vanbrugh, and designing extensions to Hopetoun House. John Gifford links Adam's rise with the retirement of James Smith, the most prominent architect of the early 18th century, who was in his 70s by this time.Gifford (1989), pp.76–77 Like Smith, Adam was a trained mason, had social connections through his family, and had the financial backing of successful business ventures. It was in 1721 that Adam became a Freemason being initiated in The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), No.1.Cooper, Robert L. D., Ed. 2010. Famous Scottish Freemasons, pp. 4–6.
However, unlike the Episcopalians Smith and Bruce, Adam was a Presbyterian Whig, in a time of Whig domination of the British government. Scottish Episcopalians were associated with Jacobitism, and as such found little favour with the ruling Hanoverian regime. Sir William Bruce, for example, was imprisoned on at least three occasions between 1693 and his death in 1710, merely on account of his principles.Fenwick, p.73–78 Adam's beliefs were much more acceptable, although he did manage to maintain relations with the exiled Jacobite, and amateur architect, John Erskine, Earl of Mar.Glendinning & McKechnie (2004), p.103 Adam's political stance allowed him to acquire influential patrons such as John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, and Sir John Clerk of Penicuik,Gifford (1989), pp.80–81 who, besides being his clients, attempted to secure government positions and contracts for him.Gifford (1989), p.106 For example, Sir John Clerk unsuccessfully proposed Adam for city architect under the "Town of Edinburgh Bill", which would have seen him overseeing new public works in the capital.Fleming, p.34 In 1727, Stair tried, again unsuccessfully, to have Adam appointed Surveyor of the King's Works in Scotland, although the following year he acquired the lesser position of Clerk and Storekeeper of the King's Works in Scotland, under the Master of Works Sir John Anstruther.Gifford (1989), p.107 In 1730 Adam was appointed principal Mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain.
In 1727 Adam and Sir John Clerk travelled to London, visiting a number of country seats along the way, including Cliveden, Wilton, and Wanstead House.Friedman, p.37 In London, Adam attempted to make further political contacts, as well as seeking out an engraver for his projected book of architectural plans, which would eventually become Vitruvius Scoticus. Also while in London, he sat to William Aikman for his portrait.Gifford (1989), p.108
Architect, entrepreneur, and laird By 1728, Adam was firmly established as a successful architect with numerous ongoing business concerns, including coal mining, salt panning, quarrying and agricultural improvements, although in that year occurred the death of his partner and father-in-law William Robertson.Gifford (1989), pp.109–110 For the same year, William Adam and Alexander McGill are called architects in the subscribers' list to James Gibbs's Book of Architecture. On 21 February 1728, Adam was made a burgess of Edinburgh,Gifford (1989), p.110 and moved with his family to a property on the Cowgate, where he later built a large tenement.Gifford (1989), p.176
His business activities continued to expand. Since the commission for Hopetoun in 1721, he had leased quarries near Queensferry which provided the stone for his building contracts.Gifford (1989), p.179 Starting in 1734, he leased lofts, granaries and warehouses in Leith, and leased coal mines and salt pans at Cockenzie, and later at nearby Pinkie he built a canal in 1742–44, to serve the mines.Gifford (1989), pp.176 & 178 Other engineering works included an aqueduct cut through a hill at Inveresk, and in 1741, an attempt to promote a Forth and Clyde canal, a project eventually realised by others some 30 years later.Fleming, p.52 His main concern from 1731 became Blair Crambeth, the estate in Kinross-shire, near Kelty, which he purchased that year for £8,010 Scots. Renaming the estate Blair Adam, he set about expanding and improving it, planting trees, enclosing land, and setting up coal mines. He established the village of Maryburgh to house the miners, and built a small house, although he seldom visited for any length of time.Gifford (1989), pp.176–178. Blair Adam remains the home of the Adam family today.
Later life In 1741 Adam was forced to initiate legal proceedings against William, Lord Braco, to retrieve unpaid fees arising from his work at Duff House. There was no formal contract, and client and architect disagreed on costs for carved stonework. Adam sued for £5,796 12s 11⅓d, and the matter was initially resolved in his favour. However, Braco was a stubborn opponent, and dragged out the proceedings, which were not resolved until just before Adam's death.
After the Jacobite rising of 1745, Adam's position as Mason to the Board of Ordnance brought him a number of large military contracts in the Highlands. In 1746, the position of Master Carpenter to the Board of Ordnance became vacant, and Adam was quick to put forward his son John's name for consideration, although he was unsuccessful in securing him the post.Gifford (1989), p.183 His three eldest sons were all involved in the family business by 1746, James and John both leaving Edinburgh University early to join their father.
William Adam succumbed to illness in late 1747, dying the following summer. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, where John Adam designed the family mausoleum built in 1753. This was restored by Edinburgh City Council and Historic Scotland in 1997 to mark the 250th anniversary of his death.
Adam created a personal library at Blair Adam which held a range of over 140 architectural works from Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain. Upon his death, he bequeathed his library to his sons.
Architectural works
Adam used a wide variety of sources for his designs, and created an inventive personal style of decoration. His chief influences were from English Palladianism, and several of his houses have been likened to designs reproduced in Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, but Adam mixed these with English Baroque motifs from Gibbs and Vanbrugh.Glendinning and McKechnie (2004), p.103Gifford (1989), passim He relied greatly on a range of French, Italian and English pattern books, including Gibbs' Book of Architecture, from which he borrowed freely with little regard for consistency of style. In addition, he took inspiration from earlier Scottish renaissance architecture, and from his predecessors Bruce and Smith.McKean, p.258 During his nearly 30-year career as an architect, Adam designed, extended or remodelled over 40 country houses, and undertook numerous public contracts.Colvin, pp.56–59 He also laid out landscape garden schemes, for instance at Newliston and Taymouth Castle.
Country houses His first commission seems to have been for extensions to Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, for Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun.The contract was signed on 17 January 1721. Gifford, p.76 Hopetoun had been built only 20 years before by Sir William Bruce, and Adam was retained to rebuild the south-east wing. These works, completed in 1725, aimed to give the east front a bold new facade, stepping forward at the ends with curved sections. According to John Fleming, "nothing so ambitious or imaginative had ever before been attempted in Scotland".Fleming, p.47 Over the following years, Adam would return to Hopetoun, building the south colonnade from 1726, the north wing from 1728, and finally the pavilions from 1736. These were not finished until 1742, the year of the Earl's death, and the completed scheme was finished by Adam's sons after his own death.Gifford (1989), pp.88, 124, 127 Adam also laid out the gardens, possibly to designs by Bruce, whose axial style they follow.Gifford (1989), p.89
Other early designs included Drum House, which boasted Scotland's first venetian window,Fleming, p.49 and Mavisbank House, both near Edinburgh. Mavisbank House, constructed between 1723 and 1727, was the first Palladian villa in Scotland, a collaboration between Adam and the owner, amateur architect Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. The latter claimed much of the credit, and certainly criticised some of Adam's suggestions, although evidence suggests Adam got his way on a number of points.Gifford (1989), pp.90–94 As at Hopetoun, here Adam enjoyed an unusually close relationship with his client, despite their differences of opinion.Fleming, p.44 His most ambitious early work was the baroque, Vanbrugh-inspired Arniston House, near Gorebridge. Built for Robert Dundas, a lawyer and politician linked to John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, Arniston includes extensive grounds laid out by Adam, with a parterre and cascade, and a main avenue centred on Arthur's Seat to the north. The stucco work to the hall at Arniston is one of Adam's finest Vanbrughian interiors.Fleming, p.51