Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Malcolm Laing

LAING, Malcolm (1762–1818), a Scottish historian, was born at his paternal estate on the Mainland of Orkney in 1762. Having studied at the grammar school of Kirkwall and the university of Edinburgh, he was called to the bar in 1785, but never obtained an extensive practice as advocate. In 1793 he completed the last volume of Henry’s History of Great Britain, the portion which he wrote being, in its strongly liberal tone, at signal variance with the preceding tenor of the work. In 1800 he published a History of Scotland from the Accession of James VI. to the Reign of Queen Anne, a work of considerable research. In a dissertation prefixed to an edition of his History published in 1804 he endeavoured to prove the participation of Queen Mary in the murder of Darnley. In the same year he published an edition of the Historie and Life of King James the Sext. His only other publication is an edition of the Poems of Ossian. For a short period in 1807 Laing represented his native county in parliament. He died in November 1818.