Alexander Adam was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 teacher and writer on Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 antiquities.

Biography

Alexander Adam was born near Forres

Forres

Forres , is a town and former royal burgh situated in the north of Scotland on the Moray coast, approximately 30 miles east of Inverness. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several occasions...

, in Morayshire. From his earliest years he showed uncommon diligence and perseverance in classical studies, notwithstanding many difficulties and privations. In 1757 he went to Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, where he studied at the university

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. His reputation as a classical scholar secured him a post as assistant at Watson's Hospital and the headmastership in 1761.

In 1764 he became private tutor to Alexander Kincaid, afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh, by whose influence he was appointed in 1768 to the rectorship of the High School on the retirement of Mr Matheson, whose substitute he had been for some time before. From this period he devoted himself entirely to the duties of his office and to the preparation of his numerous works on classical literature. His popularity and success as a teacher are strikingly illustrated by the great increase in the number of his pupils, many of whom subsequently became distinguished men, among them being Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

, Lord Brougham

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a British statesman who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in...

 and Francis Jeffrey

Francis Jeffrey

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey was a Scottish judge and literary critic.He was born in Edinburgh, the son of a clerk in the Court of Session. After attending the Royal High School for six years, he studied at the University of Glasgow from 1787 to May 1789, and at Queen's College, Oxford, from...

.

He succeeded in introducing the study of Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 into the curriculum of the school, notwithstanding the opposition of the university headed by Principal William Robertson

William Robertson (historian)

William Robertson FRSE FSA was a Scottish historian, minister of religion, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh...

. In 1780 the University of Edinburgh conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

He died after an illness of five days, during which he occasionally imagined himself still at work, his last words being, "It grows dark, boys, you may go".

Selected publications

• Principles of Latin and English Grammar (1772), which, being written in English instead of Latin, brought down a storm of abuse upon him.
• Roman Antiquities (1791) — his best work, which passed through a large number of editions and received the unusual compliment of a German translation.
• Summary of Geography and History (1794)
• Compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue (1805)

The manuscript of a projected larger Latin dictionary, which he did not live to complete, lies in the library of the High School.

Family

Adam married first, in 1775, Miss Munro, whose father was minister of Kinloss; and second, in 1780, Miss Cosser, a daughter of the controller of excise in Edinburgh.

Adam was the father-in-law of the chemist William Prout

William Prout

William Prout FRS was an English chemist, physician, and natural theologian. He is remembered today mainly for what is called Prout's hypothesis.-Biography:...

.

Further reading