Early Life
Craig was the son of William Craig, a merchant, and Mary Thomson, sister of the poet James Thomson (1700–1748). William was the son of Robert Craig, merchant and Dean of Guild in Edinburgh. He was schooled at George Watson's College, which had been recently set up to educate the sons of "deceased and indigent" merchants, suggesting that his family were of little wealth. Craig was apprenticed to mason Patrick Jamieson in 1755, and by 1764 was a qualified mason of the Incorporation of St Mary's Chapel, the guild of masons and wrights in Edinburgh. He does not appear to have had any formal architectural training, and his only known work prior to the New Town is a drawing, dating from 1763, for the proposed new North Bridge, a scheme that was built by William Mylne a few years later.
Read more about this topic: James Craig (architect)
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