Edinburgh through the Founding Fellows

Dugald Stewart (1753–1828)

The Dugald Stewart Monument is one of Edinburgh’s most photographed landmarks, however the man it commemorates is far less well known.

Stewart was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. During his lifetime, he was considered one of Scotland’s foremost intellectuals, and was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His approach to philosophical thinking greatly influenced writers such as Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Hamilton, who used his ideas to promote social progress for women and education for all classes.

As Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 1785 to 1810, Stewart became one of the most influential thinkers of his age. However Dugald’s belief that Europeans were more genealogically “civilised” than other races contributed to racist narratives that were pervasive in the 18th and 19th century, particularly since he taught many students who would go on to hold elite careers in politics and imperial administration.

Following Stewart’s death in 1828, the RSE commissioned a monument in his honour, funded through public subscription. William Henry Playfair, one of Scotland’s most celebrated architects and a leading figure in Edinburgh’s neoclassical transformation, was commissioned to design the monument. Playfair is responsible for many of Edinburgh’s landmarks, including the unfinished National Monument (also on Calton Hill), Surgeons Hall, and the National Gallery of Scotland.

Completed in 1831, the monument was inspired by the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, a structure dating from the 4th century BC. The choice of design reflected the city’s contemporary reputation as the “Athens of the North”, due to the city’s neoclassical architecture and intellectual outlook.

The monument’s fame today owes as much to its setting as to its history. Standing on the edge of Calton Hill, it frames one of the best views in Edinburgh. From here, the Scott Monument is visible on Princes Street, and Edinburgh Castle can be seen in the distance. Also visible in the foreground is the clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel, whose clock runs three minutes fast – a long-standing tradition intended to help travellers avoid missing their trains from nearby Waverley Station.

Adam Smith (1723–1790)

The Adam Smith statue can be found on the Royal Mile, in a prominent position outside St Giles’ Cathedral. Adam Smith was one of the most influential thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment and is widely regarded as the father of modern economics. Best known for his 1776 work The Wealth of Nations, Smith transformed how people understood trade, labour, and economic exchange. His ideas on division of labour, productivity, and free trade laid much of the intellectual foundation for modern capitalism and continue to shape economic thought today. 

Although remembered primarily as an economist, Smith’s work extended far beyond commerce. Earlier in his career, he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments, a major philosophical work examining ethics, sympathy, and human behaviour.  

The statue was commissioned by the Adam Smith Institute and unveiled in 2008 as the first major public monument dedicated to Smith. Alexander Stoddart, known for his classical monumental style, was commissioned to design the sculpture. The monument was unveiled by Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon L. Smith, marking renewed public recognition of Smith’s enduring global influence. 

The monument is rich in symbolism. Smith is depicted in later life, during the years he spent in Edinburgh, where he worked and eventually died. Behind him stands a plough, representing the agrarian economy that preceded industrial capitalism, while a beehive at his side symbolises industry, productivity, and cooperation. Resting beneath his hand is a globe, reflecting the international reach of trade and the global influence of his ideas. His neckwear is modelled on that worn by Thomas Jefferson and his wig is based on one of George Washington’s. 

The statue’s setting reinforces its meaning. Positioned beside the historic Mercat Cross, it stands within what was once the city’s commercial heart. Nearby is a statue of Smith’s friend and fellow philosopher David Hume, looking downhill to the Canongate (where Smith lived), towards the harbour of Leith (connecting Smith wide trade and commerce), and over to Fife, where Smith was born. Together, these surrounding landmarks connect Smith’s life, work, and ideas to the physical landscape of Scotland. 

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

The Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile has long been one of Edinburgh’s most important civic landmarks. Traditionally, it served as the site where public proclamations were read aloud by the town crier, ensuring that royal announcements, laws, and civic notices were communicated to the people. It was also associated with public punishment, including executions. The original cross dates to 1365, although it has been rebuilt and altered several times over the centuries following damage and reconstruction. In the eighteenth century, as the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment, Edinburgh attracted leading thinkers from across Europe and the Atlantic, including Benjamin Franklin, who visited Edinburgh several times.  

Benjamin Franklin was a writer, scientist, diplomat, and political thinker, as well as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the first International Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In Edinburgh, Franklin met many of the city’s scholars and philosophers who shaped Enlightenment thought – individuals who he called “men of genius”. It was said, only with slight exaggeration, that a person could stand at the Mercat Cross and “in half an hour, shake fifty men of genius by the hand.” 

Franklin’s trips to Edinburgh greatly influenced his political thinking. During negotiations between Britain and the American colonies, he looked to the union between Scotland and England as a possible model for political settlement.  Today, the Mercat Cross remains an important symbol of Edinburgh’s civic history. A unicorn sits atop the structure, accompanied by the Scottish flag, while decorative panels display the royal arms of Britain, Scotland, England, Ireland, Edinburgh, Leith, the Canongate, and the University of Edinburgh. It continues to stand as a reminder of the city’s political, social, and intellectual life across the centuries.

James Hutton (1726–1797)

James Hutton was a Scottish scientist whose ideas transformed the way we understand the Earth, laying the foundations for modern geology through his theory of “deep time” and the idea that the Earth is shaped by slow, continuous processes rather than sudden events. 

Hutton was closely connected to the intellectual life of eighteenth-century Edinburgh and was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served on its first Council alongside leading figures such as Joseph Black, Adam Smith, and John Playfair, and worked in close collaboration with Black in leading the Society’s Physical Class. He also contributed to its publications committee, helping to shape the dissemination of scientific knowledge during the Scottish Enlightenment. 

His interests extended far beyond geology. Hutton was a deeply interdisciplinary thinker whose work ranged across chemistry, agriculture, meteorology, philosophy, and linguistics. Many of his geological ideas were first presented through the Royal Society of Edinburgh and later published in its Transactions, most notably in his landmark ‘Theory of the Earth’, which introduced principles that would fundamentally reshape geological science. Hutton’s ideas were not always immediately understood or accepted, but they were later developed and clarified by his friend John Playfair, helping to establish his reputation as a central figure in modern scientific thought. His approach emphasised observation, evidence, and the gradual processes shaping the natural world; ideas that would later become central to geology as a discipline. 

Despite the significance of his contributions, Hutton’s grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard remained unmarked for many years. It was only in 1947, on the 150th anniversary of his death, that a memorial plaque was installed by the then Lord Provost, Sir John Falconer, formally recognising him as the “Founder of Modern Geology.” 

Today, the memorial in Greyfriars Kirkyard stands as a reminder of Hutton’s lasting influence on scientific thought and the wider intellectual culture of Enlightenment Edinburgh.

Joseph Black (1728–1799)

Joseph Black was one of the founding figures of modern chemistry and a pioneering scientist of the Scottish Enlightenment. Born in Bordeaux in 1728 to an Irish father and a Scottish mother, Black spent most of his working life in Scotland, where his careful experimental methods and clear teaching made him highly respected among both students and fellow scientists. 

Black is best known for his discovery of carbon dioxide, which he referred to as “fixed air.” Through experiments on limestone, he demonstrated that heating it released a distinct gas, separate from ordinary air. He also showed that the same gas was produced when breathing. This discovery paved the way for later discoveries of gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. 

Black also made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of heat, developing the concepts of latent and specific heat. He observed that when water reached boiling point, continued heating did not raise its temperature, but instead changed from liquid to steam. From this, he concluded that heat could be stored within a substance without producing a change in temperature, fundamentally altering scientific understanding of energy and heat transfer. 

Black’s work had a direct influence on his friend James Watt, who made improvements to his steam engine based on Black’s explanation of latent heat. This connection between scientific theory and engineering innovation played a key role in advancing the Industrial Revolution. 

In the 1790s, Black used Sylvan House in the Sciennes area as a summer residence. Built around 1740 for Joseph Williamson, the Town Clerk of Edinburgh, the white lime-harled house now carries a plaque commemorating Black’s contribution to science, marking his lasting connection to the city’s intellectual heritage.