William Patrick Adam, CIE, DL (14 September 1823 – 24 May 1881) was a British colonial administrator and Liberal politician.

[1][2] He was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1849.

[5] In September of the same year he was given the additional post of Paymaster General, and retained both offices until the fall of the Gladstone government in February 1874.

Adam was also the author of Thoughts on Policy of Retaliation[7] and served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Kinross-shire and Fife.

[1] Adam married Emily, daughter of General Sir William Wyllie, in 1856.