29 Facts About William Roy

William Roy was an innovator who applied new scientific discoveries and newly emerging technologies to the accurate geodetic mapping of Great Britain.

William Roy's masterpiece is usually referred to as Roy's Map of Scotland.

William Roy's grandfather had held a similar position as factor, and his uncle acted in that capacity for the Lockharts of Lee.

William Roy was certainly associated with the board by 1746, for he was the author of an official map of Culloden made soon after the battle.

The terms of William Roy's employment are unknown but must have some opportunity to undertake private surveys for he was reported as a respected land surveyor employed by the Callander family at their Craigforth estate near Stirling prior to his work for the military.

William Roy maintained his connections to his birthplace and the people living there.

William Roy noted that at first he would dine in the servants hall, in later years he would dine with the family, and later still he would be seated at the right hand of the Laird.

William Roy was without any military rank at this time but Watson appointed him as an assistant to the quartermaster to provide him some seniority over the group of six soldiers who travelled with him: an NCO, two end markers, two chainmen and a batman.

In 1776 William Roy was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 53rd Foot, a new regiment formed in 1755.

Thereafter William Roy was promoted steadily, and rapidly, in both structures, but his army rank was always greater than his board rank.

William Roy is best known by his army rank of major-general, which he attained in 1781.

From 1786 to his death in 1790, William Roy held the position of Colonel of the 30th Regiment of Foot.

Lieutenant William Roy made his drawings on a single sheet with coordinated and accurate overlays, so that the commander could more easily study the course of the battle by examining a single sheet of paper.

The commander's comprehension was greatly facilitated, and William Roy's methodology was adopted as an advancement in military science.

Thereafter his promotion was rapid, and by the end of the war in 1763 William Roy was a lieutenant colonel in the regiment and director of the engineers of the Board of Ordnance as well as being the deputy quartermaster general for Germany.

William Roy never ceased to champion this cause, but the expense of the Seven Years' War and then the American War of Independence excluded any expenditure on trigonometrical surveys for another twenty years.

William Roy was promoted to colonel in 1777, and to major-general in 1781.

William Roy was in charge of the departments of the Quartermaster-General and Chief Engineer in 1782, and in 1783 became the director of Royal Engineers.

Late in life, when he was 57, William Roy was granted the opportunity to establish his lasting reputation in the world of geodesy.

William Roy suggested that the correct values might be found by combining the Paris Observatory figures with a precise triangulation between the two observatories.

William Roy accepted with enthusiasm for he saw that apart from the specific measurements proposed the survey could be the first step towards the national survey that he had advocated so often.

William Roy died when only three pages of his final report remained to be proofed.

William Roy is cited repeatedly in early nineteenth-century mathematics textbooks for his use of spherical trigonometry in surveying.

William Roy was the first to systematically map the Antonine Wall and provide accurate and detailed drawings of its remains, an effort undertaken in 1764.

William Roy consequently adjusted his perspective to be consistent with the history as told in the fraud, causing his own conclusions to be without a valid foundation.

Much of William Roy's research was devoted to the attempt to follow fictitious journeys throughout Scotland that were described in De Situ Britanniae.

That William Roy's considerable talents were partially wasted is a tragedy.

William Roy was a Scot with a lifelong interest in ancient Scottish history, and his technical ability and scientific knowledge made him uniquely qualified to provide information in an area of history where knowledge and understanding are minimal.

All of these works show William Roy to have been an exceptionally neat and capable draughtsman.