Fordun, JOHN OF.

Fordun, JOHN OF. This early Scottish chronicler was a secular priest, and a canon of the cathedral church of Aberdeen. It has been inferred from his name that he was born at Fordun, in Kincardineshire. Having proposed to himself the compilation of a chronicle of Scotland, he is said to have travelled on foot through Britain and Ireland in search of materials. He lived to write only five books of his Scotichronicon, bringing the history down to the death of King David I. in 1153. He left collections extending to the year 1385, about which time he is supposed to have died. The work which John of Fordun had left unfinished was resumed in 1441 by Walter Bower, abbot of the monastery of Austin Canons Regular, at Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth. Making use of his collections so far as they went, Bower enlarged the five books which Fordun had completed, and wrote eleven new books, bringing the Scotichronicon down to the year 1437; but many of his alterations corrupted Fordun's narrative. The work is the chief authority for the history of Scotland prior to the 15th century; its value being greatest during the 14th, when it is contemporary. Of the Scotichronicon there exist upwards of twenty MSS., the purest as regards Fordun's text being that preserved in the Wolfenbüttel library. Four printed editions have been published. The latest edition of Fordun's own work is that chiefly from the Wolfenbüttel MS. edited by W. F. Skene (2 vols. Edin. 1871-72); one of the volumes being an English translation of the Latin text.