Major, John (or John Mair) (1467-1550) Scottish historian and theologian. Mair was born near Edinburgh, and educated at Oxford and Paris, where he rapidly rose to become professor of theology. He became Principal of the university of Glasgow, but from 1523 spent several more years in Paris, before returning to Scotland to become Provost at St Andrews. He commented on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and was a teacher of John Knox. His most important work was A History of Greater Britain.

1469–1550, Scottish theologian and historian. He studied and taught at the Univ. of Paris. His works, all in Latin, were published there. He was one of the most famous teachers of scholastic philosophy of his day, at Paris and later at the Univ. of Glasgow and at St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews. The best known of his works is Historia Majoris Britanniae, tam Angliae quam Scotiae (Paris, 1521; Edinburgh, 1740). His History of Greater Britain, both England and Scotland was the first critical history of Scotland. An English translation by Archibald Constable was published (1892) with a biography by Aeneas J. G. Mackay. Major's name was also spelled Mair.