Background
Henderson was born in Roxburghshire.
Henderson was born in Roxburghshire.
Between 1731 and 1735 he attended Marischal College, Aberdeen, getting a Master of Arts degree.
In January 1748 he published an account of the Jacobite rising of 1745, The History of the Rebellion, 1745 and 1746. In 1766 he published The life of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, which praised the Duke. This brought him into controversy with Tobias Smollett.
He attacked William Guthrie"s History of Scotland in a Dissertation on the Royal Lincolnshire of Scotland (1771).
He has been described as an "extremely patriotic" Scot.