The Edinburgh Town Council minutes for 6 June 1767 record that: ‘On Wednesday last the Magistrates of Edinburgh conferred on Mr James Craig, Architect, a gold medal with the freedom of the city in a silver box, as a reward of his merit for having designed the best plan of the New Town.’

Despite the importance of this plan (Fig. 33a) unfortunately little is known of its architect’s background. Born c. 1740, James Craig’s father was an Edinburgh merchant, his mother a sister of the poet James Thomson, best remembered as the author of Rule Britannia and The Seasons. No record survives of his early education and though he is supposed to have received his architectural training under Sir Robert Taylor, this would appear to be a confusion with a namesake. An obscure young man then, the New Town Competition of 1766–67, was to bring him sudden fame.