Author: Adam, William
Biography:
ADAM, William (1751-1839: ODNB)
He was born at Blair Adam, Kinross-shire, on 2 Aug. 1751, the eldest son of John Adam, architect, and his wife Jean Ramsay; he was the nephew of Robert and James Adam, architects. He studied at Edinburgh University before matriculating at Christ Church, Oxford, on 30 May 1769. He became a Scottish advocate in 1773 and was called to the English bar in 1782. On 7 May 1777 he married Eleanora Elphinstone, daughter of Charles, the tenth Lord Elphinstone. (Although the ODNB gives Eleanora’s birth year at 1749, ancestry records show it as 1747; she died not in 1808 as given in the ODNB but on 4 Feb. 1800.) They had five sons and one daughter. William Adam was first elected to parliament as MP for Gatton, Surrey, in 1774. He took his seat as an independent but shifted to supporting Lord North—to whom his Paradise Regain’d is dedicated. When the change was ridiculed by Charles Fox, the two men fought a duel in which Fox was slightly injured. The event led to a surprising but lasting friendship between Adam and Fox and the duel is the subject of Paradise Regain’d. It was Adam who urged North to accept a coalition with Fox in 1783 and his ability to get on well with politicians of different stripes meant that he could serve as a mediator trying to unify the Whigs. He helped to resolve Fox’s personal debt crisis in the 1790s and helped also with the two Regency crises of 1788-89 and 1810-11. However Adam was always under considerable financial pressure—aggravated by becoming responsible for his father’s debts after his death in 1792—and he abandoned politics in 1794 to concentrate on his legal practice. He became King’s Counsel in 1796 but returned to parliament in 1806 as MP for Kincardine. He retired from politics in 1812 and in 1815 was appointed Lord Chief Commissioner for Scotland; he was also made a member of the Privy Council and became a close friend of Walter Scott (q.v.). He died in Edinburgh on 17 Feb. 1839 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. (ODNB 18 Apr. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 18 Apr. 2022)
Other Names:
- A. B.