He wrote the Chronicle at the request of his patron, Sir John of Wemyss, whose representative, Mr Erskine Wemyss of Wemyss Castle, Fifeshire, possesses the oldest extant manuscript of the work. The subject is the history of Scotland from the mythical period (hence the epithet "original") down to the accession of James I in 1406. The earlier books are of no historical value, but the later have in all outstanding matters stood the test of comparison with contemporary records. The philological interest is great, for few works of this date, and no other of like magnuitude, are extant in the vernacular.
The text is preserved in eight manuscripts, of which three are in the British Library, the Royal (17 D xx.), the Cottonian (Nero D. xi.) and the Lansdowne (197); two in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh (1923 and 1924), one at Wemyss Castle (u.s.); one in the university library at St Andrews, and one, formerly in the possession of the Boswells of Auchinleck, later the property of Mr John Ferguson, Duns, Berwickshire. The first edition of the Chronicle (based on the Royal manuscript) was published by David Macpherson in 1795, the second by David Laing, in the series of "Scottish Historians" (1872). Both are superseded by the elaborate edition by Mr Amours for the Scottish Text Society (1906).
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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