Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/138

 acquired from the Earl of Morton the lands and barony of Kinross in that county, he was, says Douglas,' ever after designed by that title.' His skill and taste in building led to his appointment, in 1671, as 'the king's surveyor and master of works,' and to his employment in the restoration of Holyrood House, the ancient palace of the Stuarts in Edinburgh. He designed the quadrangular edifice as it now stands. The work was not completed till 1679, and latterly not altogether under Bruce's supervision. In 1681 he was summoned as representative in parliament of the county of Kinross, by royal letters dated at Windsor on 13 Aug. in that year. In 1685 he built his own house at Kinross, a mansion which appears to have been originally intended for the residence of the Duke of York (afterwards James II), should he have eventually been excluded from succeeding to the throne. He also built Harden House in Teviotdale, and in 1698 the mansion house of Hopetoun in Linlithgowshire was commenced from his designs. It was finished four years later, and the design, 'given by Sir William Bruce, who was justly esteemed the best architect of his time in that kingdom (Scotland),' as says Colin Campbell, will be found delineated in his ' Vitruvius Britannicus.' The house, however, was at a later date considerably altered and modified, even in some particulars of the plan, by the better-known architect, William Adam [see ]. Bruce is also said to have designed a bridge over the North Loch, a sheet of water which formerly occupied the site of the gardens now extending from the foot of the Castle Rock to Princes Street in Edinburgh; but it was never executed, and the works already enumerated (with the addition of Moncrieffe House in Perthshire, also designed by him) are the chief if not the only known proofs of their author's architectural skill. It is impossible to say that they exhibit any amount of originality or artistic genius; but these were probably little regarded in his time, when the architect's merit consisted mainly in suiting the requirements of modern life to the supposed rules of ancient construction. At the end of two centuries, however, Holyrood House is still a quaint and interesting enough structure. Bruce died at a very great age in 1710, and was succeeded by his son, who, according to Douglas, was 'also a man of parts, and, as he had got a liberal education, was looked upon as one of the finest gentlemen in the kingdom when he returned from his travels.' Neither his parts nor his education, however, prompted him to distinguish himself, and they are both useful now only as indices of the qualities of the 'king's master of works,' his father. On his death the title went to his cousin, with whom it became extinct.

 BRUCE, WILLIAM (1702–1755), publisher and author, the youngest son of James Bruce, minister of Killeleagh [q. v.], was born in 1702. He received a collegiate education, but entered business life. In 1730 he was at Dublin in partnership with John Smith, a publisher who had been educated for the ministry. In 1737 or 1738 he became tutor to Joseph, son of Hugh Henry, a Dublin banker (M.P. for Antrim 1715). With his pupil he visited Cambridge, Oxford, and probably Glasgow, for purposes of study. About 1745 he settled permanently in Dublin, and was an elder of Wood Street, his brother Samuel's congregation. He was certainly a nonsubscriber, most probably an Arian. In 1750 the general synod at Dungannon accepted a scheme of his origination for a widows' fund, which came into operation next year. In 1759 it became necessary to reduce the annuities, but it now yields three times more than was originally calculated by Bruce. In Dublin Bruce was distinguished as a public-spirited citizen. He published a pamphlet, 'Some Facets and Observations relative to the Fate of the late Linen Bill,' &c., Dublin, 1753 (anonymous, third edition), to show that the linen manufacture of the north of Ireland was exposed to a double danger by the projected closing of the American market, and the proposed abolition of the protective duties on foreign linens and calicoes. Bruce, who was unmarried, died of fever on 11 July 1755, and was buried in the same tomb with his intimate friend and cousin, Francis Hutcheson (died July 1746), the ethical writer. Gabriel Cornwall (died 1786) wrote a joint epitaph for the two friends in Latin. Bruce kept no accounts, and died richer than he thought. All his property he bequeathed to his friend, Alexander Stewart of Ballylawn, co. Donegal, afterwards of Mount Stewart, near Newtownards, co. Down (born 1699, died 22 April 1781; father of the first marquis of Londonderry). Stewart divided the property among Bruce's relatives, in accordance with a paper of private instructions. Bruce was the author, in conjunction with John Abernethy (1680-1740) [q. v.], of 'Reasons for the Repeal of the Sacramental Test,' which appeared in five weekly 