John Adair

Background

John Adair was born in 1655. Nothing is known of his parentage, birth-place or early life.

Career

His name first came before the public in 1683, when a prospectus was published in Edinburgh entitled An Account of the Scottish Atlas, stating that " the Privy Council of Scotland has appointed John Adair, mathematician and skilfull mechanick, to survey the shires. " In 1686 an act of tonnage was passed in Adair's favour.

He was perhaps the first Scottish map-maker actively to use triangulation in his work. Twelve manuscript maps survive from his work at this time, covering the Lothians, Stirling, Fife, Kinross and southern Perthshire.

Unfortunately, financial and other difficulties hampered much of John Adair's map making, and not only were very few of his maps engraved during his lifetime, but most of his manuscript maps were destroyed by fire in 1811. However, a few of his county maps were engraved and printed by Richard Cooper in the 1730s.

Achievements

• John Adair was noted for the excellence of his maps. His maps established a standard of excellence for his time and probably inspired the early 18th-century surveys of Scotland.

Membership

He was employed on a survey of the Scottish coast and two years later was made a fellow of the Royal Society.