Stevenson Macadam

Stevenson Macadam (27 April 1829 – 24 January 1901) was a Scottish scientist, analytical chemist, lecturer, and academic author.

He was a founding member of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) and a founding member of the Society of Chemical Industry. He was also a President of the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts. He was a prominent lecturer in chemistry at institutions in Edinburgh, including Edinburgh University and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh veterinary colleges. He also had a large analytical chemical consulting practise.

He was part of a small dynasty of Scottish chemical scientists including his elder half-brother William Macadam, brother Dr. John Macadam and two sons, William Ivison Macadam and Stevenson J. C. G. Macadam and granddaughter Elison A. Macadam.

Early life

Stevenson Macadam was born at North Bank in Glasgow on 27 April 1829, one of four sons and four daughters (the eldest being a half brother). He married Jessie Andrew Ivison on 23 April 1855 in Neilston, Renfrew, Scotland.

His father William Macadam (1783–1853) was a Burgess and a Bailie [magistrate] of Glasgow.

He was a third generation Burgess of a family of at least ten Burgesses and Guild brothers of Glasgow. William was the eldest son of John McAdam, John in turn was the eldest son of Alexander McAdam. Alexander was in turn the eldest son of an earlier John McAdam, Tanner, of Glasgow.

William was a Glasgow businessman who owned a mill and textile printing works at Greenholme, Kilmarnock. He and his fellow industrialists in the craft around Glasgow had developed the expertise in chemistry processes for the large scale industrial printing of fabrics for which these plants in the area became well known, both for domestic and foreign supply.

William Macadam and his family lived at 169 East George Street, Glasgow, Scotland. and Stevenson's mother was his father's second wife Helen Stevenson (1803–1857). Helen Stevenson was born 24 August 1803. The wedding took place on 3 January 1825 at Clackmannan. She was the second child of William Stevenson and Helen Grindlay. She died on 20 January 1857 at 6 Kelvinhaugh Street, Glasgow, and was buried with her husband in Glasgow Cathedral (St. Mungo's) Old Burial Ground in the Macadam tomb.

Father's wives and their children

William's first wife was Rachel Gentle with whom he had one son:

William Macadam', the eldest child, was the first chemical scientist in the family, and a half brother to Stevenson.

William's second wife was Helen Stevenson (1803–1857) with whom he had a further seven children:

Helen Grindlay Macadam

John Macadam (Stevenson's eldest full brother) who later emigrated to Australia.

Stevenson Macadam, the subject of this entry, was the third son.

Margaret Macadam

Charles Thomas Macadam a younger brother became senior partner in Odams, a fertiliser company, and was to hold the Royal Warrant as Purveyor of Chemical Manures [fertiliser] to Queen Victoria.

George Robert Macadam, his youngest brother, followed his older brother John and emigrated to Australia.

Mary Elison Macadam

Education

Stevenson studied at the Glasgow Mechanics Institution; College of Science and Arts (now the University of Strathclyde). He received his first tuition at the Mechanics Institution under his elder brother John Macadam after whom the Macadamia nut was later named.

He received his doctorate (PhD) from Giessen University. Whilst in Germany he also spent some time working in the famous laboratory of Robert Bunsen. (before emigrating to Australia in 1855 where he died aged 38).

Stevenson then became Dr. George Wilson's assistant, in his brother's stead, at the University of Edinburgh and at the Royal College of Surgeons from 1847 to 1855. and William Ivison Macadam's daughter, Elison Macadam (later Desch). Seven in all (if one includes Charles Thomas Macadam's involvement in chemical fertilisers)l.

Professional and academic career

In 1850 Dr. Stevenson Macadam began lecturing in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and became a professor there (and ultimately held that position for 50 years).

In 1855 he also began lecturing in Chemistry for pharmaceutical students on his own. He did this from quarters on Princes Street, Edinburgh

In 1855, Dr. Macadam was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh Medical School and the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine after Dr. George Wilson was appointed Regius Professor of Technology at Edinburgh University (from 1855 until his death in 1859) although Dr. Wilson retained his rooms at Surgeons Hall. During that time Dr. Macadam conducted his large classes in Adam Square at the School of Arts, with which he had been connected for several years. following its foundation by William Williams (1832–1900) in 1873. Dr. Stevenson Macadam was one of the original six founders.

Dr. Macadam remained on the staff of the New Veterinary College until it moved to its newly built campus at Elm Row, Edinburgh in 1883 when he resigned in favour of his son Professor Ivison Macadam.

On Dr. Macadam's retirement in 1900 he had completed fifty years as a lecturer, forty-five of which had been as an independent.

Learned societies

1854 Fellow (Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert, as a result of his interest in the subjects, became a regular presence while Dr Stevenson Macadam was president).

1877 A founder of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain (now the Royal Institute of Chemistry). Inorganic Chemistry (1866) (co-author with George Wilson) Practical Chemistry (1872) (reprinted 1881) On the Detection of Strychnine (1856)

Personal life

Residences

He lived from the late 1860s at Brighton House, 11 East Brighton Crescent in Portobello, Edinburgh (photograph above), where he died, having previously lived at the addresses of the places of his children's births at their birth dates below.

The family also had a country retreat in Innerleithen. There he was able to engage in his favourite outdoor pursuits, fly fishing on the Tweed and Leithen Water, hill walking, rowing and following the Otter Hounds. Stevenson Macadam House Brighton House, 11 E. Brighton Crescent, Portobello, Edinburgh Stevenson Macadam's granddaughter remembers Brighton House, Portobello

"Connected with the principal bedrooms at the back of the house were semi-circular turrets ending in peaks in the roof – like a Scottish castle – these were really W.C.s reached from the bedrooms." Steps from the hall led down to the kitchen quarters that seemed to go on forever. "The kitchen was a large one, two storeys high, nearby was a big store room which generally had hams, plum puddings and such like hanging from hooks in the ceiling."

Politics and Church

Dr. Macadam had been a member of the Liberal Party but later became a Unionist.

He was a member of The Church of Scotland and was a church elder at Duddingston Kirk. A stained glass window to his memory is erected there (photograph above). He also helped found and build St. James's Church, at Rosefield Place, Portobello.

Recreations

He was active in outdoor and country sports while leading a busy professional life.

A keen fly fisherman for both trout and salmon. He was President of the Edinburgh Angling Club at the time of his death.

He was a regular follower of the Dumfriesshire Otter Hounds.

An ardent walker and good rower. lie with him. His son William Ivison Macadam and grandson Sir Ivison Macadam lie around 20m to the south.