Life

He was the eldest son of James Wallace

James Wallace (minister)

-Life:He studied at the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. on 27 April 1659. He was shortly afterwards appointed minister of Ladykirk in Orkney. From there he was translated to Kirkwall in 1672. On 16 October 1678 he was also collated by Bishop Mackenzie to the prebend of St...

, a minister in Orkney. He qualified M.D., and took part in the Darien scheme

Darién scheme

The Darién scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "New Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s...

. He passed some plants from what is now Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

 to James Petiver

James Petiver

James Petiver was a London apothecary, a Fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his study of botany and entomology.-Life:...

, and Hans Sloane

Hans Sloane

Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...

. He became Fellow of the Royal Society, and had some employment with the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

. His later life is obscure.

Works

He edited his father's Description of the Isles of Orkney in 1693 and 1700. The first edition was dedicated to Robert Sibbald

Robert Sibbald

Sir Robert Sibbald was a Scottish physician and antiquary.-Life:He was born in Edinburgh, the son of David Sibbald and Margaret Boyd...

; the second, which added information on plants and shells of Orkney, was dedicated to Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex was an English poet and courtier.-Early Life:He was son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset...

 and made no mention of his father's contribution. In 1700 he contributed to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ‘A Part of a Journal kept from Scotland to New Caledonia in Darien, with a short Account of that Country’.

Wallace was also the author of a ‘History of Scotland from Fergus I to the Commencement of the Union,’ Dublin, 1724.