Historian, born in Aberdeenshire, educated at Paris; became a priest in 1692; after three years' service in Banffshire he returned to Paris, where he held a scholastic appointment till his death; in politics a Jacobite, in religious matters he had leanings to the Jansenist heresy; a diligent student of Scottish history, he produced the earliest scientific Scoto-historical works; his "Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland" and "Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland" (unfinished), display honesty and penetration (1662-1744).