William McAdam ( – October 1, 1779) was a Scottish-American merchant and businessman who served as the president of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York.

Early life

McAdam was born in Ayr, Scotland around 1725. He was a son of James McAdam and Margaret (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Reid) McAdam. His brother James McAdam, Baron of Waterhead, was one of the founders of the first bank in Ayr in 1763. He was a direct descendant of Gilbert McAdam, "a zealous covenantor" who was killed by the Royalists in 1685 while "attending a prayer-meeting at Kirkmichael in

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

Career

Early in his life, he came to America and established a trading and merchant business. By 1766, he had a warehouse on Smith Street, near the New Dutch Church, where he sold "Iron-bound Butts & Puncheons, genuine Batavia Arrack in Bottles, Frontinjack, Priniack &

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

, etc." During the height of his career, he brought his nephew John Loudon McAdam (son of brother James) over to New York to work as a merchant and

prize agent Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to ...

in his counting house. His nephew later returned to Scotland and became a well-known civil engineer and road-builder who invented the process known as "

macadam Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...

isation", an economical method of constructing roads. During the American Revolution, McAdam was one of fifty-one committee of correspondence members that met in May 1774 at the Fraunces Tavern "in order to consult on measures proper to be pursued on the present critical and important situation" due to the British announcement that the port of Boston would be closed under the

Boston Port Act The Boston Port Act, also called the Trade Act 1774, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which became law on March 31, 1774, and took effect on June 1, 1774. It was one of five measures (variously called the ''Intolerable Acts'', the ...

. However, McAdam, who was in "sympathy with the Crown," took steps to regulate the revival of trade in the Port of New York in 1779. After the Patriots defeated the British, his property was confiscated and he lost practically all of his fortune.

Personal life

On December 12, 1764, McAdam was married to Ann Dey, daughter of Dirck Dey and Jane Dey. Her father was a Dutch born planter, purchased 600 acres of land in

Preakness Valley Preakness Valley Park and Golf Course is located in Wayne Township and Totowa Borough, New Jersey, United States, along Totowa Road (County Road 644) and Riverview Drive (County Road 640). Of the total 377 acres in the park, 298 acres are locat ...

, now Wayne Township, and her brother, Col. Theunis Dey, built the Dey Mansion there in the 1770s. McAdam was a founder and original member of the

New York Chamber of Commerce The New York Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1768 by twenty New York City merchants. As the first such commercial organization in the United States, it attracted the participation of a number of New York's most influential business leaders, in ...

, serving as its treasurer and vice president. He was also elected a member of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York in 1761 and served as Assistant from 1765 to 1766, vice-president from 1771 to 1772 and president from 1772 to 1773. McAdam died on October 1, 1779 in New York City.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherfurd, Walter 1725 births 1779 deaths Scottish emigrants to the United States Colonial American merchants People from Ayr Presidents of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York