James Anderson, a Scottish antiquary and a lawyer, born in Edinburgh, Aug. 5, 1662, died April 3, 1728. In 1705 he published "An Essay showing that the Crown of Scotland is Imperial and Independent," in answer to a pamphlet which had appeared a short time before. For this he received the thanks of the Scottish parliament, besides a present in money, and a commission to collect and pub-lish ancient documents illustrative of the na-tional independence. Soon after the union of the two kingdoms he removed to London, where he employed himself in literary labors and in endeavoring to obtain a recognition of his claims on the government; and from 1715 to 1717 he was postmaster general of Scotland. He published "Collections relating to the His-tory of Mary, Queen of Scotland " (4 vols. 4to, 1727-8). His " Royal Genealogies, . . . from Adam to these Times," appeared after his death (1732), as also his great work, Selec-tus Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotm Thesaurus (1739), edited by Ruddiman.