elder (Greyfriars, Edinburgh, 1701 on), by 1704 Robert had been elected to the city's Town Council. Within two years he was Edinburgh College's Treasurer, and then Baillie of Leith in 1707, an Edinburgh Baillie after 1708, and Water Baillie of Leith in 1709. His rise was impressive enough to be elected a Governor of George Heriot's Hospital in 1710. The very same year he was made a burgess of the burgh of Canongate. The next decade saw Robert Craig's political career continue to flourish. In 1713 he was elected Baron Baillie of Canongate, and from 1714 he became Edinburgh Town Council's moderator of stent tax, annually levied on property values, and its Dean of Guild. As Dean he held one of the top three posts in the Town Council beside the Treasurer and Lord Provost. He served a full three-year term in this post until 1717. In this period, from 1714 to 1716, he was Edinburgh's Commissioner of the General Convention of Royal Burghs. Here he saw applications from other Scottish towns and cities to expand and improve through new harbours, bridges and roads. In his later years as an active politician until 1720 Robert Craig could be found in Town Council meetings and affairs as "Old Dean of Guild" Craig or "Old Baillie" Craig. He oversaw tax collection, accounts, the city's market and property management. He was clearly a capable and trusted administrator of the city's affairs, and one who oversaw building up the city's interests and physical size. As well as writing reports on the city's finances, in 1719 he also inspected land around Broughton and Multrees Hill - the area near where the New Town was planned out. Robert Craig would have known many architects and tradesmen as well as politicians. Not least among these magistrates would have been George Drummond. From 1723 Drummond had the ambition to create Edinburgh's New Town through petitions to Parliament to building Register House. Robert Craig's sons, James (1691–1775) and John became clerks to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland's Assembly in Edinburgh, and after 1715 joined his brother William in being made a burgess and guildbrother of Edinburgh through his father. The Craig family home was a temple tenement at the foot of West Bow facing the Corn Market. In later years, they all, including James the architect, lived in the first floor apartment of this property. In business, Robert traded