Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet (circa 1630-- 1 January 1710) was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the successful founder of classicistic in Scotland," as Howard Colvin monitors. As a major figure in introducing the Palladian style in to Scotland, they has actually been compared to the pioneering English architects Inigo Jones and also Christopher Wren, and to the contemporaneous introducers of French variety in English home architecture, Hugh May and also Sir Roger Pratt.

Bruce was a store in Rotterdam during the 1650s, and also bet a job in the Repair of Charles II in 1659. This individual carried messages between the exiled master and also General Monck, as well as his commitment to the king was compensated with lucrative official appointments, featuring that of Surveyor, effectively making Bruce the "master's architect". His customers featured John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, and also the most powerful guy in Scotland at the time, and Bruce rose to emerge as a Member of Parliament, and briefly sat on the Scottish Privy Council. Regardless of his lack of technological skills, Bruce emerged as the most prominent architect of his time in Scotland.

He or she associated with qualified masons and expert contractors, to whom this individual communicated a classic terminology; so his effect was brought far beyond his very own aristocratic circle. Beginning in the 1660s this individual built and upgraded a quantity of nation properties, providing Thirlestane Mansion for the Duke of Lauderdale, and also Prestonfield Property. Amongst his most substantial work was his personal Palladian estate at Kinross, developed on the Loch Leven estate which they had definitely acquired in 1675. As the king's architect this individual undertook the rebuilding of the Royal Palace of Holyroodhouse in the 1670s, which offered the palace its current image. After the death of Charles II Bruce lost civic favor, and later, following the accession of William as well as Mary, they was imprisoned even more than when as a presumed Jacobite. Having said that, he or she regulated to continue his architectural job, often delivering his services to others by having Jacobite sympathies.