INNES, Thomas, Scottish historian: b. Drumgask, Aberdeenshire, 1662; d. Paris, 28 Jan. 1744. At 15 he was sent to Paris, where he studied at the College of Navarre and the Scots College, of which latter body his eldest brother was principal after 1682. Thomas re ceived priest's orders in 1692, and after three years of mission work at Inveraven, Banffshire (1698-1701), returned to Paris, and became prefect of studies in the Scots College. To pursue his researches he paid a visit or two to England and Scotland; and Wodrow, who saw him at Edinburgh in 1724, describes him as ((a monkish, bookish person, who meddles with nothing but literature Withal, he was a staunch Jacobite, but no Ultramontane, and is said to have been tainted with Jansenism. He may justly be looked on as the precursor of Niebuhr and Niebuhr's successors; for his Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland) (2 vols. 1729) is much the earliest of all scientific histories. It was meant for an
introduction to a and Ecclesiastical His tory of Scotland,' one volume of which, com ing down to Columba's death, he prepared for the press, while another, bringing down the narrative to 831, was left incomplete. Both were edited for the Spalding Club by Grub (Aberdeen 1853). The air4 of the whole work was counteract the inventions of former historians (Hector Boice), and to go to the bottom of the dark contrivances of factious men (George Buchanan) against the sovereignty of our and though he thus wrote with a purpose, his honesty and acumen were such that the work retains a permanent value. Con sult by Grub; Chambers' ical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen' (Glas gow 1837); of National (Vol. XXIX, London 1892); Forbes. Ac count of the Familie of Innes> (compiled 1698; first printed, Aberdeen 1864).