Excerpt from A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Vol. 3 This distinguished father of modern highways was born in the town of Ayr. The precise date Of his birth we are unable to assign, but it appears to have been in the year 1756. He was the second son of James Macadam, Esq., of Waterhead, in the stew artry of Kirkcudbright. This family, originally de scended from the Macgregors, while the clan was still powerful and unproscribed, held the rank of Scottish barons at Waterhead previous to the acces sion of James VI. To the English throne; and the name passed into that of Macadam, in compliment to the first baron, whose name was Adam Macgregor. The last of these barons was James Macadam, father of the subject of this memoir, whose ill luck or pro fuse expenditure occasioned the family estate to pass by purchase into the possession of a younger branch of the original family. The maternal descent of John Loudon Macadam was still more distinguished, as his mother, Miss Cochrane Of Waterside, on the banks of the Ayr, was related to the illustrious house of Dundonald. His earliest education was received at the school of Maybole, at that time taught by Mr. Doick; and even already it appears that the plan ning and construction of roads had attracted his at tention. This he evinced by showing to his wonder ing school companions the model of a section of the Girvan road, extending from Maybole to Kirkoswald, which he had executed during his half-holidays. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.