House in Edinburgh: designs for a house for Sir Ilay Campbell, 1785, executed status unknown (6)
Sir Ilay Campbell, of Succoth, 1st baronet (1734-1823) was an Edinburgh-born judge and politician. His family originated from the west of Scotland but by the mid-eighteenth century formed part of the legal community of Edinburgh.. He was a Principal Clerk of Session, Writer to the Signet, Solicitor-General, and Lord Advocate, and he also sat in Parliament for Glasgow in 1784. Upon retirement, he resided at his estate of Garscube, Dunbartonshire.
In 1785, the Adam office made designs for a house for Campbell in Edinburgh. It is thought that this could have been intended for the east end of Queen Street, later renamed York Place, although there is no evidence of it being constructed (King, p. 125). The design comprised a three-storey, five-bay end of terrace house, facing east.
Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp.12, 65; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 2, 2001, p. 125; J. Grant, Cassell’s Old and New Edinburgh: its History, its Peoples and its Places, 1882, p.270; M. Fry, Sir Ilay Campbell, of Succoth, first baronet (1734-1823), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online, 2022