(John), a Scottish author, was contemporary with, and the companion, some say the chaplain, of Sir William Wallace. He attended that great hero in almost all his exploits; and, after his death, which left so great a stain on the character of Edward I. of England, he wrote his memoirs in Latin. The injury of time has destroyed this work, which might have thrown the greatest light on the history of a very busy and remarkable period. An inaccurate fragment of it only has descended to us, from which little can be learned, and which was published, with a commentary, by Sir Robert Sibbald.

(James), an eminent divine, was born and bred in Scotland, where he had at length a benefice in the episcopal church; but meeting with some discouragements, he came to England, in the latter end of the reign of king Charles II. and was sent by Dr Compton as a missionary to Virginia, and was afterwards, by the same bishop, made commissary for that colony, the highest office in the church there. He distinguished himself by his exemplary conduct and unrestrained labours in the work of the ministry; and finding that the want of proper seminaries for the advancement of religion and learning was a great damp upon all attempts for the propagation of the gospel, he formed a design of erecting and endowing a college at Williamsburgh, in Virginia, for professors and students in academical learning. He therefore not only set on foot a voluntary subscription; but, in 1693, came to England to solicit the affair at court: when queen Mary was so well pleased with the noble design, that she espoused it with particular zeal; and king William readily concurring with her majesty, a patent was passed for erecting and endowing a college by the name of the William and Mary college, of which Mr Blair was appointed president, and enjoyed that office near 50 years. He was also rector of Williamsburgh, and president of the council in that colony. He wrote, Our Savior's divine Sermon on the Mount explained in several sermons, 4 vols, octavo; and died in 1743.

(John), an eminent chronologist, was educated at Edinburgh; and coming to London was for some time usher of a school in Hedge-Lane. In 1754, he obliged the world with that valuable publication, "The Chronology and History of the World, from the Creation to the year of Christ 1753. Illustrated in LVI. Tables; of which four are introductory and contain the centuries prior to the first Olympiad; and each of the remaining LII. contain in one expanded View 50 Years, or half a Century." This volume, which is dedicated to lord chancellor Hardwicke, was published by subscription, on account of the great expense of the plates, for which the author apologized in his preface, where he acknowledged great obligations to the earl of Bath, and announced some chronological dissertations, wherein he proposed to illustrate the disputed points, to explain the prevailing systems of chronology, and to establish the authorities upon which some of the particular eras depend. In January 1755 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1761 of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1756 he published a second edition of his "Chronological Tables." In Sept. 1757, he was appointed chaplain to the Princess Dowager of Wales, and mathematical tutor to the Duke of York; and on Dr Townshend's promotion to the deanery of Norwich, the services of Dr Blair were rewarded, March 10, 1761, with a prebendal stall at Westminster. The vicarage of Hinckley happening to fall vacant six days after, by the death of Dr Morres, Dr Blair was presented to it by the dean and chapter of Westminster; and in August that year he obtained a dispensation to hold with it the rectory of Burton Coggles in Lincolnshire. In September 1763 he attended his royal pupil the duke of York in a tour to the continent; had the satisfaction of visiting Lisbon, Gibraltar, Minorca, most of the principal cities in Italy, and several parts of France; and returned with the duke in August 1764. In 1768 he published an improved edition of his "Chronological Tables," which he dedicated to the Princess of Wales, who had expressed her early approbation of the former edition. To the new edition were annexed, "Fourteen Maps of Ancient and Modern Geography, for illustrating the Tables of Chronology and History. To which is prefixed a Dissertation on the Progress of Geography." In March 1771, he was presented by the dean and chapter of Westminster to the vicarage of St Bride's in the city of London; which made it necessary for him to resign Hinckley, where he had never resided for any length of time. On the death of Mr Sims, in April 1776, he resigned St Bride's, and was presented to the rectory of St John the Evangelist in Westminster; and in June that year obtained a dispensation penstation to hold the rectory of St John with that of Horton, near Colebrooke Bucks. His brother captain Blair falling gloriously in the service of his country in the memorable sea-fight of April 12th 1782, the shock accelerated the Doctor's death. He had at the same time the influenza in a severe degree, which put a period to his life, June 24th 1782. His library was sold by auction December 11-13th, 1781; and a course of his "Lectures on the Canons of the Old Testament" hath since been advertised as intended for publication by his widow.