(fl. 1761 - 89)
1760 - 3 Turin (Jun. 1760), Rome (by Oct. 1762 - Mar. 1763 - )
'A little highlander' whom James Adam met in Turin, Robert Mackinlay was 'a most curious personage and immensely entertaining'. In Rome (sometime before March 1762 when Strathmore left) he had a heated argument with the Abbé Grant concerning the merits of architects, which Lord Strathmore tried to control; James Adam then succinctly reported that Mackinlay had one eye, was very small, had been in Bedlam, and thought Robert Mylne better than Robert Adam.1
Mackinlay was said to be returning to England from Rome in May 1761,2 but he was taking up his winter quarters there in October 1762 with Henry O'Hara.3 In March 1763 they were both still in Rome, Mackinlay 'full of spirits', 'happy in using his knowledge without any fee, but with the greatest success in restoring the sick. He is drole in his Vivacity, & his Narrations, & beloved by everybody'.4 He was probably the 'Dr McKinlay' who gave James Boswell elaborate directions for his tour of Italy, including the recommendation of the antiquary Colin Morison in Rome,5 and the Dr Robert Mackinlay who met Benjamin West in Rome in 1761 and in Paris in 1763.6
1. Fleming, Adam, 295 - 6, 376. 2. Seafield mss, gd 248/99/3 (Abb? Grant, 9 May 1761). 3. Fleming, Adam, 376. 4. Seafield mss, gd 248/49/2 (D. Crespin, 11 Mar. 1763). 5. Boswell, Italy, 24n3, 54n3. 6. R.C. Alberts, Benjamin West, 55.