thumb|Patrick Fraser Tytler, by [[Margaret Sarah Carpenter, exhibited 1845]]

Patrick Fraser Tytler FRSE FSA (Scot) (30 August 179124 December 1849) was a Scottish advocate and historian. He was described as the "Episcopalian historian of a Presbyterian country".

Life

thumb|300px|The Fraser Tytler family vault, Greyfriars Kirkyard

The son of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, he was born in a house on George Street in Edinburgh's New Town. He was named after his paternal uncle, Col Patrick Tytler. He was educated at the Edinburgh High School.

He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh in 1813; in 1816 he became King's counsel in the Exchequer, and practised as an advocate until 1832.

He then moved to London, and it was largely owing to his efforts that a scheme for publishing state papers was carried out. Tytler was one of the founders of the Bannatyne Club and of the English Historical Society. His body was returned to Edinburgh for burial in the family vault, which lies within the sealed south-west section of Greyfriars Kirkyard known as the Covenanter's Prison.

Works

Tytler is most noted for his literary output. He contributed to Archibald Alison's Travels in France (1815); his first independent essays were papers in Blackwood's Magazine. His major work, the History of Scotland (1828–1843), covered the period between 1249 and 1603. The seventh volume deals with the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots after her marriage with Darnley.

His other works include:

  • Notes on the Darnley Jewel (1843)
  • Portraits of Mary Queen of Scots (1845).

References

  • The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with their Descendants, etc., by Messrs, John and John Bernard Burke, London, volume 1 (1848) pedigree CLXXIX.

The contents of the missing Volume V above, from the 3rd Edition, are contained in a later edition, immediately following (which itself is from an incomplete edition of Tytler's History).

<u>Several of his other works</u>

<u>Works about him and his publications</u>

  • – a review taking Tytler to task on a number of points; first printed in the North British Review (May – August 1845).