David Laird Adams


Prof David Laird Adams DD was a Scottish academic who was professor of Hebrew and oriental languages at the University of Edinburgh.

Life

Adams studied arts and divinity at the University of Edinburgh, receiving a prize for Biblical criticism.
In 1870 he was living in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, and is thought to have been teaching classics at Dollar Academy.
A Church of Scotland minister at Monimail, Fife 1875.
In 1880 he replaced Prof David Liston as professor of Hebrew and oriental languages at the University of Edinburgh. Adams introduced Syriac and Arabic to the syllabus. He was replaced by Prof John Dobie.
He died at Primrose Villa, Victoria Park, in Trinity, Edinburgh, in 1892. He is buried in the south-east section of Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh.

Family

He was married to Sarah Emma Child Sneezum.
Their daughter was Euphemia Laird Adams.

Artistic recognition

A sketch of Prof Adams by William Brassey Hole is held by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.