His Historie, the only work by which he is remembered, is described as a continuation of that of Hector Boece, translated by John Bellenden.
Sir Walter Scott made use of it in his narrative poem Marmion; and, in spite of its inaccuracy in details, it is useful for the social history of the period.
Lindesay's share in the Historie was generally supposed to end with 1565; but Dr Aeneas Mackay considers that the frank account of the events connected with Mary, Queen of Scots, between 1565 and 1575 contained in one of the manuscripts is by his hand and was only suppressed because it was too faithful in its record of contemporary affairs.
218 in the university of Edinburgh, was published by the Scottish Text Society in 1899 under the editorship of Aeneas Mackay.
The manuscript, formerly in the possession of John Scott of Halkshill, is fuller, and, though in a later hand, is, on the whole, a better representative of Lindsay's text.