Abell regards himself as a continuator of
Hector Boece. He recounts much legendary history including the story of
King Lear and his daughters, and
Macbeth and the witches. The chronicle ends in 1537 mentioning a process of divorce between
Margaret Tudor, and
Harry Stewart, Lord Methven.
Norman Macdougall thought the three pages of the
Quheil of Tyme that refer to
James III of Scotland significant enough to print in his study of the king. Abell said of the death of James III in 1488:"thai conspirit againis the king and gaif him batell beside
striwiling and thare he wes slane. He wes confessit before with
maistir Johne Yrland proffessor of theologie., ... thai slew him in the mill of
bannoburne. Macdougall found nothing strikingly original in Abell's account of James III, which depends in part on
Hector Boece, but was able to infer that his other sources for the reign were sympathetic to James III and
Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, and to Abell's contemporary,
John Stewart, Duke of Albany. Writing in 1537 of events in the previous year, Abell tells the story of the visit of
James V of Scotland to
Mary of Bourbon, with the interesting suggestion that there had been an exchange of portraits; as an
Augustinian friar "In ane dissimilit vestement he com to the
duik of Vendôme fathir of the lady that he suld haif marreit. He wes knawin thare be his picture." Alasdair Stewart contends that Abell's moralising handling of his subject matter and the examples he offers show his own strong character, contemporary attitudes and a unique view of international events from the cloister at Jedburgh. ==References==