William Roy: still an enigmatic figure in Scots cartography

Abstract

ABSTRACT William Roy was the son of a Lanarkshire estate factor, born into a locally influential and solidly Presbyterian family. Through contacts with the powerful Dundas family, his career path took him away from Clydesdale to make a significant contribution to the improvement and accuracy of the mapping of Great Britain. Following the defeat of the Jacobite army at Culloden, he came to the attention of David Watson, appointed Deputy-Quartermaster-General in Scotland and tasked with producing a survey of North Britain based on his own scheme. This was part of a wider military programme to improve the road network and the defences of several key Scots castles. Although to the wider public Roy is most closely associated with this Military Survey, it was Watson’s concept and was carried out for a military purpose. It was subsequently described by Roy himself as ‘rather … a magnificent military sketch, than a very accurate map of a country’ and this may have influenced his later career. Roy worked throughout as a civilian and only received his army commission after the Survey was completed. Although this was only part of his contribution to the advancement of knowledge, it is possible that, in Scotland, it is the one part of his career which won him most renown. While surveying southern Scotland, he developed an interest in military, particularly Roman, antiquities which led to the posthumous publication of his major study in 1793. Unlike other Scots figures alive during the Scottish Enlightenment, his real contribution to cartography was particularly British and was instrumental in the foundation of the Ordnance Survey. For the first time, readers have the opportunity to consider his life in the round.