However, more recent research has shown that his birth date was 31 October 1739, as recorded in the registers of George Watson's Hospital, where Craig was educated.

In 1713 he was elected Baron Baillie of Canongate, and from 1714 he became Edinburgh Town Council's moderator of stent tax, annually levied on property values, and its Dean of Guild.

As well as writing reports on the city's finances, in 1719 he also inspected land around Broughton and Multrees Hill - the area near where the New Town was planned out.

William did not follow his father into Town Council politics, but in 1745 he was elected by the magistrates to be its sword and mace bearer for formal processions and ceremonies which gave an allowance of £200 (Scots).

However, it clear from his business affairs, library and goods, that Craig spent money collecting books and objects celebrating James Thomson and the poets and followers in his circle in England.

For his contract with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh he had the financial support of blood relatives James Bell, a Minister in Coldstream, and rector of Lanark Grammar School, Robert Thomson.

[2] In 1775 he even donated a portrait by John Baptist Medina (1659–1710) of the poet to Edinburgh College, which was widely reported in the press and had a dedication to Thomson on its frame.

Throughout his career as an architect he was widely noted as the poet's nephew in books, the media, and participated in public and private celebrations of Thomson's life and work in both England and Scotland.

James Craig's focus on Thomson led to his obituary in volume IV of the Scots Register of 1796 suggesting that the architect believed he should be chosen for work primarily because of his relationship to the famous poet rather than sound business practice.

Given the anticipation of the city's New Town through suggested plans, petitions, pamphlets and most recently the Edinburgh Buildings Act 1753 (26 Geo.

The architecture books and equipment he kept in his apartment, together with sculptures of artists and writers there, indicate that Craig presented himself as a cultivated, skilled and tasteful architect.

However, it was not until the middle of the 18th century that Lord Provost George Drummond (1688–1766) succeeded in extending the town boundary to encompass the fields to the north of the Nor Loch.

With the judges advice Craig drew up the final approved version, and a feuing plan to match it so that prospective property developers and owners could see what the New Town would look like and buy a building plot.

Craig soon had plan made into a print and copies were sold by bookshops and from his own home at the foot of Edinburgh's West Bow.

A decade later, he planned the Blythswood estate, to the city's west end, and adjoining lands owned by Glasgow Town Council.

Other projects, such as the Inverkeithing Lazaretto in 1771, Royal Botanical Gardens from 1774 to 1782, and May Island Lighthouse in 1786 were all also partially funded through national government and its agencies.

Politicians aside, another significant source of patronage and friendship Craig enjoyed was from academic professionals including physicians, lawyers, professors to gentlemen living in country houses.

In fact, his New Town plans showed new churches were a constantly in his thoughts, and the presence of Alexander Webster (1708–1784) on the project's administrative committees meant that the architect often worked closely with the Minister.

Meanwhile, in 1775 he planned and built a funerary monument for John Fullarton of Carberry inside St Michael's church, where Alexander Carlyle (1722–1805) was its Minister[6] Inveresk.

This New Church refurbishment would also have meant working with its Minister, Hugh Blair (1718–1800), who was also Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh College.

Given his connection with Dr Carlyle, and James Thomson, Blair may have warmed to Craig's obvious interests in literature and education with the architect drawn to the Moderate party of the Church of Scotland.

[7] As if to illustrate his commitment to Scottish literature, in 1788 Craig worked with Professor William Richardson (1743–1814) of Glasgow College and other Glaswegians and local me to erect a monument commemorating George Buchanan (1506–1582) at Killearn.

Smaller scale projects for country houses included providing an elevation of Mountquhanie House in Fife in 1770 for John Gillespie, and from 1774 to 1775 Craig provided Noel Hill, 1st Lord Berwick, with a drawing of Tern Hall in Shropshire at a time when Hill proposed to convert it into Attingham Hall.

No record of who attended his funeral has been found but his death was widely reported in the British press typically commenting that the architect of the New Town and nephew of James Thomson has died.

Craig was not the only architect or tradesman to have faced financial difficulties, but the commissary court's inventories of his possessions give a fascinating insight into his life and work.

By 1782, his letters to his banker, and confidante, Sir William Forbes (1739–1806), indicate both his frustration at exclusion from work and need to raise money through loans.

For on 16 September 1791 the Town Council Alexander Dawson, a teller in the Royal Bank of Scotland, stopped Craig being paid £350 for work done for the city.

Despite his occasional quarrelsome correspondence, commonly caused by non-payment or refusal to adhere to advice, Craig did have friends and allies.

Dr William Cullen, Dugald Stewart (1753–1828), Lord Kames, Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, Dr John Hope, James Boswell, Alexander Adam (1741–1809) and many more can be found on good terms with him and after death Craig's reputation as a being a respectable or eminent architect was not tarnished by his debts as when media reports appeared his work and relationship to Thomson was remembered.

Due to complex bans on monuments in Greyfriars' churchyard (not lifted until the late 19th century) the grave was only marked in the 1930s, then being done as part of half a dozen new memorials to notable persons by the Saltire Society.