[William Forbes]. Scottish historian and antiquary, the second son of Sir Walter Scott’s friend, James Skene (1775–1864), of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen; born on the 7th of June 1809. He was educated at Edinburgh High School, in Germany and at the university of St. Andrews, taking an especial interest in the study of Celtic philology and literature. In 1832 he became a writer to the signet, and shortly afterwards obtained an official appointment in the bill department of the Court of Session, which he held until 1865. His early interest in the history and antiquities of the Scottish Highlands bore its first fruit in 1837, when he published The Highlanders of Scotland, their Origin, History and Antiquities. His chief work, however, is his Celtic Scotland, a History of Ancient Alban (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1876–1880), perhaps the most important contribution to Scottish history written during the 19th century. In 1879 he was made a D.C.L. of Oxford, and in 1881 historiographer royal for Scotland. He died in Edinburgh on the 29th of August 1892.
The most important of Skene’s other works are the following: editions of John of Fordun’s Chronica gentis Scotorum (Edinburgh, 1871–1872); of the Four Ancient Books of Wales (Edinburgh, 1868); of the Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (Edinburgh, 1867); and of Adamnan’s Vita S. Columbae (Edinburgh, 1874); an Essay on the Coronation Stone of Scone (Edinburgh, 1869); and Memorials of the Family of Skene of Skene (Aberdeen, 1887).
