James Craig was a Scottish architect active in the 18th century. He achieved celebrity for winning the competition for Edinburgh New Town, Scotland in 1766, but his consequent self importance ensured that his architectural commissions were few, and he never became a fashionable architect.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography the date of Craig's birth was 31 October 1739. It was recorded as such in Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh although the year of his birth is often cited as being 1744.
Craig died unmarried in Edinburgh on 23 June 1795. He was buried in Greyfriars Cemetery in that city.
Sources:
Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 3rd Edition (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), pp.275-277.
Cruft, Kitty and Andrew Fraser, ‘Craig, James (1739–1795)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6570> [accessed 16 January 2008]
National Archives, National Register of Archives, Person Details, 'Craig, James (1744-1795) Architect, GB/NNAF/P161796' <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=P6832> [accessed 16 January 2008]
Further reading:
Cruft, Kitty and Andrew Fraser (eds.), James Craig, 1744-1795 : The Ingenious Architect of the New Town of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: Mercat, 1995)
Lowrey, John, 'Landscape Design and Edinburgh New Town', in Brogden, W. A. (ed.), The Neo-Classical Town: Scottish Cotnributions to Urban Design Since 1750 (Edinburgh: Rutland, 1996), pp. 66-77.