in the press and had a dedication to Thomson on its frame. Craig promoted himself as the most celebrated living relative of Thomson. Throughout his career as an architect he was widely noted as the poet's nephew in books, the media, and participated in public and private celebrations of Thomson's life and work in both England and Scotland. As he grew older it was clear that James Craig family line was going to end with the architect's death. However, he had contact with relatives from the Thomson family in Lanarkshire. James Craig's focus on Thomson led to his obituary in volume IV of the Scots Register of 1796 suggesting that the architect believed he should be chosen for work primarily because of his relationship to the famous poet rather than sound business practice. The validity of this remark can be debated but it was clear to all that family commitments played significant roles in Craig's business and architecture. Architectural training In 1755 Craig left school aged sixteen. This was because he was to be the apprentice to the incorporation of wrights and masons of Edinburgh, and its Council Deacon Patrick Jamieson. Given the anticipation of the city's New Town through suggested plans, petitions, pamphlets and most recently the city's Improvement Act of 1753, taking up a career in building was confident and ambitious. The incorporation and Craig agreed that his training would begin in 1759 and run for the normal six-year period. Writing in April 1777, as an architect, Craig told Edinburgh Town Council's Chamberlain that he had been "bred in the executive part" of his business as an architect. Whilst studying under Jamieson Craig would have seen and known the mason's building projects. These included the new Exchange building where Jamieson was chief mason. Through his master and such prestigious projects, Craig would have met a number of architects, including John Adam (1721–1792). He had designed the Exchange and was to later supervise Craig’s work in Edinburgh and elsewhere. Like other apprentices, Craig was also expected to read architectural treatises, such as Palladio's books on architecture, and learn how to draw the architectutral orders, plan and survey buildings, use building materials and prepare accounts. The architecture books and equipment he kept in his apartment, together with sculptures of artists and writers there, indicate that Craig presented himself as a cultivated, skilled and tasteful architect. Like John Adam, Craig did