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. Roy maintained his connections to his birthplace and the people living there. A servant for the Lockharts of Lee recalled his visits there over time, as his national reputation grew. She 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. Monument There is a monument to William Roy at the location of his birthplace on Milton Road near Carluke. It is signposted from the junction of Lanark Road and Cartland Avenue. The monument is in the form of a Hotine pillar, a type of trig point. The inscription reads "Here stood Miltonhead the birthplace of Major-General William Roy 4th May 1726 - 30th June 1790 from whose military map of Scotland made in 1747 - 1755 grew the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain". Principal sources Lee (1885–1900) Dictionary of National Biography (1900 edition). The early years of the Ordnance Survey. First published in 1924. Includes some of Roy's letters. Map of a Nation: a biography of the Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey, map makers to Britain since 1791. Available online. A History of the Ordnance Survey. The official account. References to original papers. Available online. History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Available online. Roy as surveyor and soldier The survey of Scotland In 1747 Lieutenant-Colonel David Watson, Deputy Quartermaster-General, proposed the compilation of a map of the Scottish Highlands following the Jacobite rising of 1745. In response, King George II commissioned a military survey of the Highlands, and Watson was placed in charge, under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, but it fell to Roy "to begin, and afterwards to have a considerable share in, the execution of that map", now known as The Duke of Cumberland's Map. 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 (typically) six soldiers who travelled with him: an NCO, two end markers, two chainmen and a batman. From 1749 he was joined by another five junior surveyors for various periods