PAUL DE, Seigneur de Thoyras, an eminent historian, was the son of Jacques de Rapin, and was born at Castres in 1661. He was first educated under a tutor in his father's house, and was afterwards sent to Samur. In 1679 he returned to his father, with a design to apply himself to the study of the law, and was admitted an advocate; but reflecting that his being a Protestant would prevent his advancement at the bar, he soon after resolved to quit the profession of the law, and to apply himself to that of the sword. His father, however, would not consent to the change. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the death of his father, which happened two months afterwards, made him resolve to come to England; but as he had no hopes of any settlement there, his stay was but short. He therefore went to Holland, and enlisted himself in the company of French volunteers at Utrecht, commanded by M. Rapin, his cousin-german. He attended the Prince of Orange into England in 1688; and the following year Lord Kingston made him an ensign in his regiment, with which he proceeded to Ireland, where he gained the esteem of his officers at the siege of Carrickfergus, and soon received a lieutenant's commission. He was present at the battle of the Boyne, and was shot through the shoulder at the battle of Limerick. He was soon afterwards made captain of the company in which he had been ensign; but in 1693 he resigned his company to one of his brothers, in order to become tutor to the Earl of Portland's son. Having finished this employment, he returned to his family, which he had settled at the Hague, where he continued some years. But as he found his family increase, he resolved to retire to some cheap country; and accordingly removed in 1707 to Wesel, where he commenced his great work the History of England. Though he was of a strong constitution, yet seventeen years' application entirely ruined his health. He died in 1725. Rapin wrote in French a Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Tories. His Histoire d'Angleterre was printed at the Hague in 1726 and 1727, in 9 vols. 4to, and reprinted at Trevoux in 1728, in 10 vols. 4to. This last edition is more complete than that of the Hague. It has been translated into English, and improved, with notes by Tindal, in 2 vols. folio, 1737–39. This performance, although the work of a foreigner, is deservedly esteemed as one of the fullest and most impartial collections of English political transactions extant.