Tytler, WILLIAM, of Woodhouselee, historian and antiquary, was born at Edinburgh, 12th October 1711, educated at the High School and the university, admitted a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet in 1744, and died 12th September 1792. His best-known works are an Inquiry into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots (1759; 4th ed. 1790), in which he attempted to vindicate her from the charges brought by Robertson and Hume, and an edition of the Poetical Remains of James I. of Scotland (1783).
His eldest son, ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER, a historical writer, and a judge with the title of Lord Woodhouselee, was born at Edinburgh 15th October 1747, educated principally there, but also at Kensington, and admitted to the Scottish bar in 1770. He obtained in 1780 the chair of History in the university of Edinburgh, in 1790 the office of Judge-advocate of Scotland, and in 1802 was raised to the bench of the Court of Session. His acquirements were of the most varied kind, em- bracing most departments of literature and the fine arts. His writings include a biography of Henry Home, Lord Kames; a Dictionary of Decisions of the Court of Session; and the work by which he is best known, his Elements of General History (1801), which has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and even into Hindustani. He died 5th January 1813.—His fourth son, PATRICK FRASER TYTLER, an eminent historical writer, was born at Edinburgh, 30th August 1791, and educated chiefly there, being called to the Scottish bar in 1813. Of his thirteen works the most valuable is his History of Scotland (9 vols. 1828-43), beginning at the accession of Alexander III., and terminating at the union of the crowns, a book of more critical research than any work on the same subject that had preceded it, and itself by no means yet wholly superseded. Others were Lives of the Admirable Crichton (1819), Sir Thomas Craig (1823), Wyclif (1826), Scots Worthies (3 vols. 1831-33), Raleigh (1833), and Henry VIII. (1837), and Progress of Discovery on the Northern Coasts of America (1832). In consideration of his merits as a historian, Sir Robert Peel conferred on him in 1844 a pension of £200; and he died at Malvern, 24th December 1849. See Dean Bur- gon's Life of Patrick Fraser Tytler (1859).