Scottish historian, born at Drumgask, Aberdeenshire, in 1662. At fifteen he was sent to Paris, where he studied at the College of Navarre and the Scots College. In 1692 he received priest’s orders, and after three years of mission work in Banffshire, returned to Paris and became prefect of studies in the Scots College. His Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland (1729) is much the earliest of all scientific histories. It was meant for an introduction to a Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, one volume of which, coming down to Columba’s death, he prepared for the press, while another, bringing down the narrative to 831, was left incomplete. The work retains a permanent value. He died in Paris on the 28th of January 1744.
