The Scottish Nation
Erskine

ERSKINE, anciently spelled Areskin, and sometimes Irskyn, a surname of great antiquity, and one which has been much distinguished in all periods of Scottish history, was originally derived from the lands and barony of Erskine in Renfrewshire, situated on the south side of the Clyde, the most ancient possession of the noble family who afterwards became Lords Erskine and earls of Mar.

      An absurd tradition asserts that at the battle of Murthill fought with the Danes, in the reign of Malcolm the Second, a Scotsman having killed Enrique, a Danish chief, cut off his head, and with the bloody dagger in his hand, showed it to the king, saying in Gaelic, Eris Skene, alluding to the head and dagger; on which Malcolm gave him the name of Erskine. In those remote times, however, surnames were usually assumed from lands, and all such traditions referring to the origin of the names of illustrious families are seldom to be depended upon. The appearance of the land justifies the derivation of the name from the British word ir-isgyn, signifying the green rising ground. The earliest notice of the name is in a confirmation of the church of “Irschen” granted by the bishop of Glasgow in favour of the monastery of Paisley, betwixt the years 1202 and 1207 [Chartulary of Paisley, p. 113.] In 1703, the estate of Erskine was purchased from the Hamiltons of Orbinston by Walter, master of Blantyre, afterwards Lord Blantyre, in which family the property remains.

      Henry de Erskine was proprietor of the barony of Erskine so early as the reign of Alexander the Second. He was witness of a grant by Amelick, brother of Maldwin, earl of Lennox, of the patronage and tithes of the parish church of Roseneath to the abbey of Paisley in 1226.

      His grandson, ‘Johan de Irskyn,’ submitted to Edward the First in 1296.

      Johan’s son, Sir John de Erskine, had a son, Sir William, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Mary, was married, first to Sir Thomas Bruce, brother of King Robert the First, who was taken prisoner and put to death by the English, and secondly to Sir Ingram Morville; and the second, Alice, became the wife of Walter, high steward of Scotland.

      Sir William de Erskine, the son, was a faithful adherent of Robert the Bruce, and accompanied the earl of Moray and Sir James Douglas in their expedition into England in 1322. For his valour he was knighted under the royal banner in the field. He died in 1329.

      Sir Robert de Erskine, knight, his eldest son, made an illustrious figure in his time, and for his patriotic services, was, by David the Second, appointed constable, keeper, and captain of Stirling castle. He was one of the ambassadors to England, to treat for the ransom of that monarch, after his capture in the battle of Durham in 1346. IN 1350 he was appointed by David, while still a prisoner, great chamberlain of Scotland, and in 1357 he was one of those who accomplished his sovereign’s deliverance, on which occasion his eldest son, Thomas, was one of the hostages for the payment of the king’s ransom. On his restoration, David, in addition to his former high office of chamberlain, appointed Sir Robert Justiciary north of the Forth, and constable and keeper of the castles of Edinburgh and Dumbarton. In 1358 he was ambassador to France, and between 1360 and 1366 he was five times ambassador to England. In 1367 he was warden of the marches, and heritable sheriff of Stirlingshire. In 1371 he was one of the great barons who ratified the succession to the crown of Robert the Second, grandson, by his daughter Marjory, of Robert the Bruce, and the first of the Stuart family. To his other property he added that of Alloa, which the king bestowed on him, in exchange for the hunting district of Strathgartney, in the Highlands. He died in 1385.

      His son, Sir Thomas Erskine, knight, succeeded his father, as governor of Stirling castle, and in 1392 was sent ambassador to England. By his marriage with Janet Keith, great-grand-daughter of Gratney, eleventh earl of Mar, he laid the foundation of the succession on the part of his descendants to the earldom of Mar and lordship of Garioch.

      Sir Robert Erskine, knight, his son, was one of the hostages for the ransom of James the First in 1424. On the death of Alexander, earl of Mar, in 1435, he claimed that title in right of his mother, and assumed the title of earl of Mar, but the king unjustly kept him out of possession. He died in 1453.

      Sir Thomas Erskine, his son, was dispossessed of the earldom of Mar by an assize of error, in 1457, but in 1467 he was created a peer under the title of Lord Erskine.

      This family were honoured for several generations with the duty of keeping, during their minority, the heirs apparent to the crown.

      Alexander, the second Lord Erskine, had the charge of James the Fourth, when prince of Scotland, and ever after continued in high favour with him. He died in 1510.

      John, the fourth Lord Erskine, had the keeping of James the Fifth during his minority. On his coming of age he was sent by James in 1534 ambassador to France, to negociate a marriage with a daughter of the French king, and afterwards he was sent ambassador to England. On the death of James, in conjunction with Lord Livingston, he had committed to him the charge of the infant queen Mary. He dept her for some time in Stirling castle, and afterwards removed her to the priory of Inchmahome, situated on an island in the lake of Monteith, in Perthshire; which priory had been bestowed upon him by James the Fifth, as commendatory abbot. Subsequently, for greater security, he conducted the youthful Mary to France. He died in 1552. Margaret Erskine, daughter of this nobleman, was the mother, by James the Fifth, of the regent Murray.

      His eldest son, the master of Erskine, was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. He was the ancestor, by an illegitimate son, of the Erskines of Shielfield, near Dryburgh, of which family the famous Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, the originators of the first secession from the Church of Scotland, were cadets. Memoirs of them are given below. The fourth son, the Hon. Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, was the ancestor of the earls of Kellie. [See KELLIE, earl of.]

      The second son, John, the fifth Lord Erskine, succeeded his father as governor of Edinburgh castle. Although a Protestant himself, he preserved a strict neutrality in the struggles between the Lords of the Congregation and the queen regent, Mary of Guise, while he upheld the authority of the latter, to whom, when hard pressed by her enemies, he gave protection in the castle of Edinburgh, where she died in June 1560. On the return of Queen Mary from France in 1561 he was appointed one of her privy council. In the following year he submitted his claim to the earldom of Mar to parliament, and was successful in establishing his right as the descendant, in the female line, from Gratney, eleventh earl of Mar. [See MAR, earl of.] In consequence of Lord Erskine being confirmed earl of Mar, the queen’s natural brother, afterwards regent, who then bore the title, was styled earl of Moray instead. On the birth of James the Sixth in 1566, the new earl of Mar was intrusted with the keeping of the young prince; and on the death of the earl of Lennox in 1571 he was chosen regent in his stead. He died in the following year, leaving a high reputation for integrity and honesty of purpose. From a portrait of the regent Mar in Pinkerton’s Scottish Gallery, the subjoined woodcut is taken:

[portrait of John Lord Erskine]

      The first of the family of Erskine, barons of Dun, as separated from that of Erskine of Erskine, the original stock, was John the son of Sir Thomas Erskine of that ilk, who had a charter from King Robert the Second of the barony of Dun, near the town of Montrose, in Forfarshire, dated November 8, 1376. The name of Dun is Gaelic, and signifies a hill or rising ground.

      This Sir Thomas was twice married; first to Janet Keith, by whom he had Sir Robert Erskine, and a daughter, married to Duncan Weems, younger of Lochar Weems; and secondly, to Jean Barclay, by whom he had John Erskine, already mentioned, who succeeded to the lands of Dun, as appears by a charter to him, from King Robert the Third, of these lands, dated October 25, 1393.

      The next in succession in the lands of Dun was Alexander Erskine, supposed to be the son of John. He resigned the lands of Dun, reserving his own liferent, to his son, John the second, who received from King James the Second a charter to the same, of date January 28, 1449. The vesting the fee of the property in the eldest son, while the father retained the liferent, became afterwards a practice in the family.

      John Erskine of Dun, the second of that name, had three sons: John, his heir, Thomas, and Alexander. He resigned his lands of Dun to his eldest son in 1473, retaining the liferent, and died March 15, 1508.

      John Erskine of Dun, the third of that name, had several sons, of whom Thomas Erskine of Brechin, the second son, was secretary to King James the Fifth. He fell on the fatal field of Flodden, September 9, 1513. This John Erskine, laird of Dun, treated the inhabitants of Montrose in the most tyrannical manner, and in consequence of his oppressive conduct and that of his family the town applied to the king for redress. A summons of spulzie was accordingly issued against him and four of his sons, 4^th October, 1493.

      Sir John Erskine, the fourth of that name, married Margaret Ruthven, daughter of William first Lord Ruthven, widow of the earl of Buchan, by whom he had John Erskine of Dun, knight, one of the principal leaders of the Reformation in Scotland, and afterwards superintendent of Angus, of whom a memoir is afterwards given below.

      A succeeding proprietor of Dun, John by name, was poisoned on the 23d May, 1613, by his uncle Robert. The trial of the latter, as well as that of his three sisters, by whom he was instigated to the atrocious deed, will be found in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. iii. pp. 261-266.

      Of the later lairds of Dun the only other personage of public note was David Erskine, Lord Dun, a judge of the court of session, of whom also a notice is afterwards given.

      The estate of Dun came into possession of the noble family of Kennedy, by the marriage, on June 1, 1793, of Archibald, 12^th earl of Cassillis, and first marquis of Ailsa, with Margaret, 2d daughter of John Erskine, Esq. of Dun. Their 2d son, John, born June 4, 1802, on inheriting the property, assumed the additional surname of Erskine. He married, in 1827, Lady Augusta Fitzclarence, 4^th daughter of William IV., and died at Pisa, March 6, 1831. His widow married again, in 1836, Lord John Frederick Gordon Hallyburton of Pitcur, 3d son of 9^th marquis of Huntly. Mr. Kennedy Erskine, with two daughters, left one son, William Henry, born July 1, 1828, at one time a captain 17^th lancers, unmarried. The elder daughter, Wilhelmina, married, in 1855, her cousin, 2d earl of Munster; the younger, Millicent Ann Mary, became the wife of J. Hay Wemyss, Esq. of Wemyss Castle, Fifeshire.

      Alexander Erskine, plenipotentiary for Sweden at the treaty of Munster, a distinguished officer in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, was of the family of Erskine of Kirkbuddo in Fife, sprung from the Erskines of Dun. Ennobled in Sweden, some of his descendants were settled at Bonne in Germany.

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      The Erskines of Alva (represented by the earl of Rosslyn) are sprung from a branch of the noble house of Mar, descended from Hon. Charles Erskine, 5^th son of John, 7^th earl of Mar. His eldest son, Charles Erskine of Alva, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 30^th April 1666. Sir Charles had four sons and one daughter. Charles, Lord Tinwald, his third son, a lord of session, and afterwards lord justice clerk, was father of James Erskine, Lord Alva, also a lord of session.

      The grandson of the first baronet, Lieutenant-general Sir Henry Erskine, distinguished himself as a minor song writer. The second son of Sir John Erskine of Alva, second baronet, he succeeded to the baronetcy, on the death of his elder brother, in 1747. He was for many years M.P. for the Anstruther district of burghs. He early entered the army, but in 1756 he lost his rank, on account of his opposition to the importation of the Hanoverian and Hessian troops into this country. After the accession of George III. in November 1760, he was restored to his rank in the army, and appointed colonel of 67^th foot. He married at Edinburgh, in 1761, Janet, only daughter of Peter Wedderburn, Esq. of Wedderburn, a lord of session, under the name of Lord Chesterhall. Sir Henry was deputy quarter-master-general, and succeeded his uncle, Hon. General St. Clair, in the command of the Royal Scots in 1762. He was the author of the song, ‘In the garb of old Gaul,’ the air of which was composed by the late General Reid. He died at York, 9^th August 1765. His eldest son, Sir James Erskine, also in the army, assumed the surname of St. Clair, and on the death of his uncle, Alexander Wedderburn, earl of Rosslyn, in 1805, became 2d earl of Rosslyn, and died 8^th June 1837. [See ROSSLYN, earl of.]

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      There is also the family of Erskine of Cambo in Fife, on which a baronetcy was conferred in 1821. Sir David, the first baronet, was the grandson of the tenth earl of Kellie. He died in 1841. His son, Sir Thomas, the 2d baronet, born in 1824, is an officer in the army, and married, with issue.

ERSKINE, JOHN, of Dun, knight, one of the principal promoters of the Reformation in Scotland, was born in 1508, at the family seat of Dun, near Montrose. His grandfather, father, uncle and granduncle, fell at Flodden, and he succeeded to the estate of Dun when scarcely five years old. By the care of his uncle, Sir Thomas Erskine of Brechin, secretary to King James the Fifth, he received a liberal education; but had scarcely attained to the years of majority, when he appears to have killed Sir William Forster, a priest of Montrose. The document which preserves the record of this fact, and of the assythment or manbote paid by him to the father of the deceased, dated 5^th February 1530, is inserted among the Dun papers in the Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. fourth. None of the circumstances are given, except that the deed was committed in the Bell Tower of Montrose. He studied at a foreign university, and he has the merit of being the first to encourage the acquisition of the Greek language in Scotland, having, in 1534, on his return from abroad, brought with him a Frenchman capable of teaching it, whom he established in Montrose. He seems about this time to have married Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of the earl of Crawford. This lady died 29^th July 1538, and he subsequently married Barbara de Beirle.

      On the 10^th of May, 1537, he had a license from James V. for himself, his son John, and other relatives, permitting them “to pas to the partis of France, Italie, or any uthiris beyond se, and thair remane, for doing of thair pilgramagis, besynes, and uthir lefull erandis, for the space of thre yeiris.” His uncle, Sir Thomas Erskine of Brechin, had obtained from the same monarch a gift of the office of constabulary of Montrose, which he conveyed by a charter, dated 9^th February 1541, to John Erskine of Dun, the subject of this notice, in liferent, and to his son and heir apparent, John Erskine, in fee. In April 1542 he and his cousin, Thomas Erskine of Brechin, and John Lambie of Duncarry, had a license to travel into France, Italy, and other places, for two years. [Dun Papers in Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. 4.]

      Having early become a convert to the Reformed doctrines, he was a zealous and liberal encourager of the Protestants, especially of those who were persecuted, to whom his house of Dun was always a sanctuary, as he was a man of too much power and influence for the popish bishops to interfere with. In his endeavours, however, to promote the Reformation, he did not neglect his other duties. During the years 1548 and 1549 he supported the queen dowager and the French party in opposing the English forces, and we learn from the histories of the time that in 1548, some English ships having landed about eighty men in the neighbourhood of Montrose, for the purposes of plunder, Erskine of Dun collected a small force from the inhabitants of that town, of which he was then provost, and had for some years been constable, and fell upon them with such fury, that not a third of them regained their ships. Among the Dun papers which have been published, are several letters to the laird of Dun from Mary, the queen dowager. These refer to the passing events of the period, and show the high estimation in which he was held by her. One of them, dated 29^th August, 1549, relates to the coming to Montrose of the French Captain Beauschattel, and his company, regarding which Erskine seems to have remonstrated, dreading some attempts against his rights, as her majesty assures him that there was “na entent bot till kepe the fort, and nocht till hurt you in your heretage or ony othir thing.” It appears that a small hill, close to the river, was called the Fort, or Constable Hill [Bowick’s Life of Erskine, page 62, quoted in the Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. 4, preface, page xii, note], and it has been conjectured that Erskine may have thought the occupation of this fort by the French captain derogatory to his rights as constable, and so made it subject of complaint. He was considered not only by his own countrymen, but by foreigners, as one of the most eminent heroes which the Scottish nation had produced in that age, so fertile in great men, and M. Beauge, in his History of the Campaigns in Scotland of 1548 and 1549, makes frequent and honourable mention of him and his exploits at that time.

      At Stirling, March 10, 1556, the laird of Dun and some others, signed a “call” to John Knox, then at Geneva, to return to Scotland, and promote the Reformation. On Knox’s arrival, that year, Erskine, being in Edinburgh, was one of those who used to meet in private houses to hear him preach. It was at supper in the laird of Dun’s house, that all present there with Knox resolved, that, whatever might be the consequence, they would wholly discontinue their attendance at Mass. On his invitation, the Reformer followed him to Dun, where, on this, as well as on a subsequent visit, he preached almost daily, and made many converts. On the 3d December 1557 Erskine of Dun subscribed the first Covenant at Edinburgh, along with the earls of Argyle and Glencairn, and other noblemen and gentlemen, and thus became one of the lords of the congregation.

      In the parliament which met December 14, 1557, he was appointed, under the title of ‘john Erskine of Dun, knight, and provost of Montrose,” to go to the court of France, as one of the commissioners, to witness the young Queen Mary’s marriage with the dauphin. “Of which trust he acquitted himself with great fidelity and honour, and was approved by the parliament on his return.” On his return, he found the Reformation making great progress in Scotland; and when the Protestants, encouraged by their increase of numbers, and the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the English throne, petitioned the queen regent, more boldly than formerly, to be allowed the free exercise of their religion, the laird of Dun was one of those who joined in the prayer, but he seems to have used milder language, and been more moderate in his demands than the others. So far, however, from granting the toleration requested, the queen regent issued a proclamation requiring the Protestant ministers to appear at Stirling on May 10, 1559, to be tried as heretics and schismatics. The lords of the congregation, and other favourers of the Reformation, seeing the danger to which their preachers were exposed, resolved to accompany and protect them. Anxious to avoid bloodshed, Erskine of Dun left his party at Perth, and, with their consent, went forward to Stirling, to have a conference with the queen, who acceded to his advice, and agreed that the ministers should not be tried. He accordingly wrote to those who were assembled at Perth to stay where they were, as the queen regent had consented to their wishes. But while many of the people dispersed on receiving this intelligence, the barons and gentlemen, rightly distrusting the regent’s word, resolved to remain in arms till after the 10^th of May. And well was it that they did so, for the queen had no sooner made the promise than she perfidiously broke it. The preachers not appearing on the day named, were denounced rebels, which so incensed and disgusted the laird of Dun that he withdrew from court, and joined the lords of the congregation at Perth, when he explained to them that in giving his advice to disperse he had himself been deceived by the regent. He therefore recommended them to provide against the worst, as they might expect no favour, and a civil war ensued, which lasted for some time, and ended at last, first in the deposition, October 23, 1559, and secondly on the death of the queen regent, June 10, 1560, in favour of the Protestants.

      The laird of Dun, previous to that event, had relinquished his armour, and become a preacher, for which he was, from his studies and disposition, peculiarly qualified. In the ensuing parliament, he was nominated one of the five ministers who were appointed to act as ecclesiastical superintendents, the district allotted to him being the counties of Angus and Mearns. This appointment took place in July 1560, and he was installed in 1562 by John Knox. The superintendents were elected for life, and though their authority was somewhat similar to that of a bishop, they were responsible for their conduct to the General Assembly. The other four superintendents were, Mr. John Spottiswood of Spottiswood, the father of Archbishop Spottiswood, of Lothian; John Willocks, formerly a Dominican friar, of Glasgow; John Winram, formerly subprior of St. Andrews, of Fife; and John Carsewell, of Argyle and the Isles. The laird of Dun not only superintended the proceedings of the inferior clergy, but performed himself the duties of a clergyman. He was appointed moderator of the ninth General Assembly at Edinburgh, December 25, 1564; also of the eleventh the same day and place, 1565; also of the twelfth at Edinburgh, June 25, 1566; and of the thirteenth at Edinburgh, December 25, 1566. In January 1572 he attended the convention held at Leith, where episcopacy was established. His gentleness of disposition recommended him to Queen Mary, who, on being requested to hear some of the Protestant preachers, answered, as Knox relates, “That above all others she would gladly hear the superintendent of Angus, Sir John Erskine, for he was a mild and sweet-natured man, and of true honesty and uprightness.”

      In 1569, by virtue of a special commission from the Assembly, he held a visitation of the university of Aberdeen, and suspended from their offices, for their adherence to popery, the principal, sub-principal, and three regents or professors of King’s college, Aberdeen. In 1571 he showed his zeal for the liberties of the church, in two letters which he wrote to his chief, the regent earl of Mar, the first of which will be found in Calderwood, vol. 3. They are written, says Dr. M’Crie, “in a clear, spirited, and forcible style, contain an accurate statement of the essential distinction between civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and should be read by all who wish to know the early sentiments of the Church of Scotland on this subject.” In 1577 he assisted in compiling the ‘Second Book of Discipline.’ Besides the duties belonging to his spiritual charge, he was frequently called upon to execute those belonging to his military character as a knight; thus, on the 20^th of September 1579, he was required, by a warrant from the king, to recover the house of Redcastle from James Gray, son of Patrick Lord Gray, and his accomplices, by whom it had been seized and retained, and deliver it to John Stewart, the brother of the Lord Innermeith. Notwithstanding that the reformation had, in his day, made so great progress in Scotland, and that he himself had been one of the principal promoters of it, he was it seems not altogether divested of some of the superstitious observances of popery. In the ‘Spalding Miscellany,’ vol. iv. mention is made of a license from the king, signed James R., with consent of his privy council, of date February 25, 1584, to John Erskine of Dun, to eat flesh all the time of Lent, and as oft as he pleases on the forbidden days of the week, to wit, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; noted upon the back, with the same hand, a license to your L— to eat flesh; he being then past the age of seventy-six. In 1580, four years before this, he had received a license, wherein he, and three in company with h im, are allowed to eat flesh from February 13 to March 26.

      From the laird of Dun’s conciliatory disposition, as well as his high intelligence, his advice and assistance were valued by all parties, as appears by various letters in the ‘Spalding Miscellany,’ vol. iv. Perhaps one of the most important of these, in its bearing on the church, is one addressed to him by the earl of Montrose and the secretary Maitland on 18^th November 1584, which seems to have been written with the view of obtaining Erskine’s assent to certain statutes, then recently passed in parliament, at the king’s instance, declaring his supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters, which were obnoxious to the leading clergy of the time. The ministers were required to subscribe an “obligation,” recognising his majesty’s supremacy, under pain of deprivation of their benefices; and the proceedings which ensued on the proclamation for the fulfilment of these enactments are minutely detailed in ‘Calderwood’s Church History,’ vol. iv. page 209, et seq.

      In consequence of the part taken by Erskine in prevailing on the ministers within his bounds to subscribe “the obligation,” he acquired some unpopularity among them; in the expressive words of Calderwood, “the laird of Dun was a pest then to the ministers in the north.” A letter from Patrick Adamson, titular archbishop of St. Andrews, to Erskine, dated 22d January 1585, inserted among the Dun papers in the ‘Spalding Miscellany,’ seems intended to give explanations about “the obligation,” as he says “the desyr of his Maiesties obligatioun extrendis no forthir bot to his hienes obedience, and of sik as bearis charge be lawfull commission in the cuntrie, quheirof his Maiestle hes maid ane speciall chose of your lordship: as for the diocese of Dunkeld, I think your lordship will understand his Maiesties meining at your cuming to Edinbrught, and as ffor sik pairtis as is of the diocese of Sanct Androwis in the Merns and Anguse, I pray your lordship to tak ordour thairin for thair obedience and conformitie, as your lordship hes done befoir, that they be nocht compellit to travell forthir, bot thair suspendis may be rathir helpit nor hinderit;” with more to the same purpose. It appears from a summons, at the instance of the laird of Dun, for payment of his stipend as superintendent of Angus and Mearns, dated 9^th September 1585, that the whole amount of it in money and victual, did not much exceed £800. The portion paid in money was £337 11s. 6d. [Miscellany of Spalding Club, vol. iv, Editor’s preface.] He died March 12, 1591, in the 82d year of his age. Buchanan, Knox, Spottiswood, and others, unite in speaking highly of his learning, piety, moderation, and great zeal for the Protestant religion. Spottiswood says of him that he governed that portion of the country committed to his “superintendence with great authority, bill his death, giving no way to the novations introduced, nor suffering them to take place within the bounds of his charge, while he lived. A baron he was of good rank, wise, learned, liberal, and of singular courage; who, for diverse resemblances, may well be said to have been another Ambrose. He left behind him a numerous posterity, and of himself and of his virtues a memory that shall never be forgotten.” – Miscellany of the Spalding Club. – Scott’s Lives of Reformers. – M’Crie’s Lives of Knox and Melville. – Calderwood’s History.

ERSKINE, DAVID, LORD DUN, an eminent lawyer, of the same family as the superintendent, was born at Dun, in Forfarshire, in 1670. From the university of St. Andrews he removed to that of Paris, and having completed the study of general jurisprudence, he returned to Scotland, and was, in 1696, admitted advocate. He was the staunch friend of the nonjurant episcopal clergy, and in the last Scottish parliament zealously opposed the Union. In 1711 he was appointed one of the judges of the court of session, and in 1713 one of the lords of justiciary. In 1750 his age and infirmities induced him to retire from the bench. In 1754 he published a small volume of moral and political ‘Advices,’ which bears his name. He died in 1755, aged 85. By his wife, Magdalen Riddel, of the family of Riddel of Haining in Selkirkshire, he left a son, John, who succeeded him in the estate of Dun, and a daughter, Anne, married first to James, Lord Ogilvy, son of David, third earl of Airly, and secondly to Sir James Macdonald of Sleat. – Scots Mag. 1754.

ERSKINE, HENRY, REV., a divine of considerable eminence, the ninth of twelve children, – not thirty-three, as has been generally stated, – of Ralph Erskine of Shielfield, in Berwickshire, descended from the noble house of Mar, was born at Dryburgh, Berwickshire, in 1624. He studied at the university of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.A., and was soon after licensed to preach the gospel. In 1649 – as stated by Wodrow, but according to Dr. Harper, in his Life of Ebenezer Erskine, more probably ten years later, viz. in 1659, as stated by Calamy and Palmer – he was, by the English Presbyterians, ordained minister of Cornhill, in the county of Northumberland, where he continued till he was ejected by the act of Uniformity, August 24, 1662. He was thus minister of Cornhill for three years. [Calamy’s Continuation, Palmer’s Noncon. Memorial.] He now removed with his family to Dryburgh, where he appears to have resided for eighteen years, and where he occasionally exercised his sacred office. In the severe persecution to which the Presbyterians in Scotland were at that period subjected, this faithful minister could not of course expect to escape; and, accordingly, on Sabbath, April 23, 1682, a party of soldiers came to his house, and, seizing him while worshiping God with his family, carried him to Melrose a prisoner. Next day he was released on bond for his appearance when required, and soon after was summoned to appear before the council at Edinburgh, to answer charges of sedition and disobedience, because he presumed to exercise his ministry without conforming to the new order of things. On his refusal to swear that he had not altogether refrained from the duties of his ministry, and to “give bond that he would preach no more at conventicles,” he was ordered to pay a fine of 5,000 merks, and committed to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, to be afterwards sent to the prison of the Bass till the fine was paid; but, on petition, he obtained a remission of his sentence on condition of leaving the kingdom. One account states, that he took refuge in Holland, whence the want of the necessaries of life induced him to return to Scotland, when he was imprisoned in the Bass for nearly three years, but this statement rests on questionable authority. It is certain that he resided for some time at Parkbridge, in Cumberland, and afterwards at Monilaws, about two miles from Cornhill, in Northumberland, whence he had been ejected. On July 2, 1685, he was again apprehended, and kept in prison till the 22d, when he was set at liberty, in terms of the act of Indemnity passed at the commencement of the reign of James II. In September 1687, after the toleration granted by King James’ proclamation of indulgence, Mr. Erskine became minister of Whitsome, on the Scots side of the Border; and it was under his ministry, at this place, that the celebrated Thomas Boston received his first religious impressions. He remained at Whitsome till after the Revolution, when he was appointed minister of Chirnside, in the county of Berwick. He continued minister of that place till his death, August 10, 1696, aged sixty-eight. He left several Latin manuscripts, among others, a Compend of Theology, explanatory of some difficult passages of Scripture, none of which were ever published. He was twice married. His first wife, who died in 1670, was the mother of eight children, one of whom, Philip, conformed to the Church of England, and, receiving episcopal orders, held a rectory in the county of Northumberland. Another child of the first marriage became afterwards well-known as Mrs. Balderstone of Edinburgh, a woman of superior intelligence and of devoted piety. By his second wife, Margaret Halcro, a native of Orkney, a descendant of Halcro, prince of Denmark, and whose great grandmother was the Lady Barbara Stuart, daughter of Robert, earl of Orkney, son of James V., he was the father of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, the founders of the Secession in Scotland.

      The death of Mr. Henry Erskine took place in the midst of his family; and the circumstances of it as related by Dr. Calamy [Continuation] are peculiarly interesting, from the impression which they appear to have made on the young hearts of his two celebrated sons, Ebenezer and Ralph. Long after, remarks Dr. Harper, the scene was referred to by them as one of their hallowed recollections. “The Lord helped me,” says Ebenezer on one occasion, “to speak of his goodness, and to declare the riches of his grace in some measure to my own soul. He made me tell how my father took engagements of me on his deathbed, and did cast me upon the providence of his God.” Ralph, in like manner, more than thirty years after the event, put on record, “I took special notice of the Lord’s drawing out my heart towards him at my father’s death.” – Memoir of Rev. H. Erskine. – Dr. Harper’s Life of Ebenezer Erskine.

ERSKINE, EBENEZER, the founder of the Secession church in Scotland, fourth son of the preceding, was born June 22, 1680. Some accounts say his birth-place was the prison of the Bass, but this is evidently erroneous. His biographer, the Rev. Dr. Fraser of Kennoway, thinks it probable that he was born at the village of Dryburgh, in Berwickshire, and in confirmation of this the Rev. Dr. Harper of Leith, in his Life of Ebenezer Erskine, gives the following extract from a small manuscript volume belonging to Mr. Henry Erskine, Ebenezer’s father, in possession of the Rev. Dr. Brown of Broughton Place church, Edinburgh: “Eben-ezer was borne June 22d, being Tuesday, at one o’clock in the morning, and was baptized by Mr. Gab: Semple July 24^th, being Saturnday, in my dwelling house in Dryburgh 1680.” He appears to have received the elements of his education at home, under the superintendence of his father, and in his fourteenth year he was sent to the university of Edinburgh, where he held a bursary on the presentation of Pringle of Torwoodlee, and where he prosecuted his studies for a period of nine years, four of which were devoted to the classics and philosophy, and five to theology. IN June 1697, he took his degree of M.A., and on leaving college he became tutor and chaplain in the family of the earl of Rothes. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Kirkaldy on the 11^th February 1703, and in the succeeding September was ordained minister of Portmoak, Kinross-shire. It was not till after his ordination that his heart appears to have received its first powerful impressions of evangelical and vital religion, and a corresponding change to the better of spirit and style took place in his public ministrations. Exemplary in the discharge of his ministerial duties, and devoted to his people, he soon became popular amongst them. “Nor,” says Dr. Harper, “was Mr. Erskine’s popularity and usefulness confined to Portmoak and its immediate vicinity. From all parts of the country, in every direction, sometimes at the distance of sixty miles, eager listeners flocked to his preaching. On sacramental occasions particularly, the gatherings were great. From all accounts of the sacred oratory of the man, there is no doubt that there was in it much to impress a promiscuous audience. His bodily presence was commanding, – his voice full and melodious, – his manner grave and majestic, – and after the fulness and fervour of his heart broke through the trammels of his earlier delivery, his bearing in the pulpit combined ease with dignity in an unwonted degree. But to whatever extent these external advantages commended him to the people, it is gratifying to remark the most unequivocal proofs that the great charm – the element of power which signalized Mr. Erskine as a preacher, – was the thoroughly evangelical matter and spirit of his discourses.” [Life of Ebenezer Erskine by Dr. Harper, pp. 10, 21.]

      In the various religious contests of the period he took an active part, particularly in the famous Marrow controversy, which commenced in 1719, and in which he came forward prominently in defence of the doctrines, which had been condemned by the General Assembly, contained in the work entitled ‘The Marrow of Modern Divinity.’ He revised and corrected the Representation and Petition presented to the Assembly on the subject, May 11, 1721, which was originally composed by Mr. Boston; and drew up the original draught of the answers to the twelve queries put to the twelve brethren; along with whom he was, for their participation in this matter, solemnly rebuked and admonished by the moderator. This took place in the Assembly of 1722. The twelve representers submitted to the authority of the supreme court, but accompanied their submission with a protest against the deed, and their claim of liberty “to profess, preach, and still bear testimony to the truths condemned.” In the cases, too, of Mr. Simson, professor of divinity at Glasgow, and Mr. Campbell, professor of church history at St. Andrews, who, though both had been proved to have taught heretical and unscriptural doctrines, were very leniently dealt with by the Assembly, as well as on the question of patronage, he distinguished himself by his opposition to the proceedings of the church judicatories.

      The high estimation in which Mr. Erskine was held procured him at different times the honour of a call from Burntisland, Tulliallan, Kirkcaldy, and Kinross, but the church courts, in full concurrence with his own views and inclinations, decided against his removal in all these cases, although party feeling, particularly as regards Kirkcaldy, had its influence in preventing his translation. In May 1731 he accepted of a call to the third charge, or West church, at Stirling, and, in September of that year, he was settled one of the ministers of that town. Having always opposed patronage, as contrary to the standards of the Church, and as a violation of the treaty of Union, he was one of those who remonstrated against the act of Assembly of 1732 regarding vacant parishes. As moderator of the Synod of Perth and Stirling, he opened their meeting at Perth, on October 10^th of that year, with a sermon from Psalm cxviii. 24, in which he expressed himself with great freedom against several recent acts of the Assembly, and particularly against the rigorous enforcement of the law of patronage, and boldly asserted and vindicated the right of the people to the election of their minister. Several members of Synod immediately complained of the sermon, and, on the motion of Mr. Mercer of Aberdalgie, a committee was appointed to report as to some “unbecoming and offensive expressions,” alleged to have been used by the preacher on the occasion. Having heard Mr. Erskine in reply to the charges contained in the report of the committee, the Synod, after a keen debate of three days, by a majority of not more than six, “found that he was censurable for some indecorous expressions in his sermon, tending to disquiet the peace of the Church,” and appointed him to be rebuked and admonished. From this decision twelve ministers and two elders dissented. Mr. Erskine, on his part, protested and appealed to the next Assembly. To his protest, Messrs. William Wilson of Perth, Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy, and James Fisher of Kinclaven, ministers, adhered.

      The Assembly, which met in May 1733, refused to hear the reasons of protest, but took up the cause as it stood between Mr. Erskine and the Synod; and, after hearing parties, “found the expressions vented by him, and contained in the minutes of Synod, and his answers thereto, to be offensive, and to tend to disturb the peace and good order of the Church; and therefore approved of the proceedings of the Synod, and appointed him to be rebuked and admonished by the moderator at their bar, in order to terminate the process.” Against this decision Mr. Erskine lodged a protest, vindicating his claim to the liberty of testifying against the corruptions and defections of the Church upon all proper occasions. To this claim and protestation the three ministers above named adhered, and along with Mr. Erskine, withdrew from the court. On citation they appeared next day, when a committee was appointed to confer with them; but, adhering to their protest, the farther proceedings were remitted to the Commission, which met in the ensuing August, when Mr. Erskine and the three ministers were suspended from the exercise of their office, and cited to appear again before the Commission in November. At this meeting the four brethren were, by the casting vote of the moderator, declared to be no longer ministers of the Church of Scotland, and their relationship with their congregations formally dissolved. When the sentence of the Commission was intimated to them, they laid on the table a paper declaring a secession from the prevailing party in the established church, and asserting their liberty to exercise the office of the Christian ministry, notwithstanding their being declared no longer ministers of the Church of Scotland.

      On the 5^th day of the subsequent December, the four ejected ministers met together at the Bridge of Gairney, near Kinross, and after two days spend in prayer and pious conference, constituted themselves into a presbytery, under the designation of the “Associate Presbytery.” Mr. Erskine was elected the first moderator, and from this small beginning the Secession Church took its rise.

      The General Assembly of 1734, acting in a conciliatory spirit, rescinded several of the more obnoxious acts, and authorised the Synod of Perth to restore the four brethren to communion and to their respective charges, which was done accordingly by the Synod, at its next meeting, on the 2d July. The seceding ministers, however, refused to accept the boon, and published their reasons for this refusal. On forming themselves into the “Associate Presbytery,” they had published a ‘Testimony to the Doctrine, Worship, and Discipline of the Church of Scotland.’ In December 1736 they published a Second Testimony, in which they condemned what they considered the leading defections of both Church and State since 1650. In February 1737 Mr. Ralph Erskine, minister of Dunfermline, brother to Ebenezer, and Mr. Thomas Mair, minister of Orwell, joined the Associate Presbytery, and soon after two other ministers also acceded to it.

      In the Assembly of 1739 the eight brethren were cited to appear, when they gave in a paper called ‘The Declinature,’ in which they denied the Assembly’s authority over them, or any of their members, and declared that the church judicatories “were not lawful nor right constituted courts of Jesus Christ.” In the Assembly of 1740 they were all formally deposed from the office of the ministry. In that year, a meeting-house was built for Mr. Erskine by his hearers at Stirling, where he continued to officiate to a very numerous congregation till his death. During the rebellion of 1745, Mr. Erskine’s ardent loyalty led him to take a very active part in support of the government. Animated by his example the Seceders of Stirling took arms, and were formed into a regiment for the defence of the town. Dr. Fraser, his biographer, relates that one night when the rebels were expected to make an attack on Stirling, Mr. Erskine presented himself in the guardroom fully accoutred in the military garb of the times. Dr. John Anderson, late professor of natural philosophy in the university of Glasgow, and Mr. John Burns, teacher, father of the Rev. Dr. Burns, Barony parish in that city, happened to be on guard the same night; and, surprised to see the venerable clergyman in this attire, they recommended him to go home to his prayers as more suitable to his vocation. “I am determined, was his reply, “to take the hazard of the night along with you, for the present crisis requires the arms as well as the prayers of all good subjects.” [Life by Fraser, p. 439.] When Stirling was taken possession of by the rebel forces, Mr. Erskine was obliged, for a short period, to retire from the town, and his congregation assembled for worship on Sundays, in the wood of Tullibody, a few miles to the north of Stirling. So great, indeed, was the zeal displayed by him in the service of the government that a letter of thanks was addressed to him by command of the duke of Cumberland.

      When the controversy concerning the lawfulness of swearing the religious clause contained in the Burgess oath led, in April 1747, to the division of the Secession church, Mr. Erskine was one of those who adhered to the Burgher portion of the synod. In consequence of Mr. Moncrieff of Abernethy, who held the office of professor of divinity to the associate presbytery, adhering to the Antiburgher portion of the Secession, the Burgher portion was left destitute of a professor; and Mr. Erskine consented, at the request of his brethren, to fill the office, but, at the end of two years, he resigned it on account of his health in 1749. He died June 2, 1754, aged 74. He had been twice married; first, in 1704, to Alison Turpie, daughter of a writer in Leven, by whom he had ten children, and who died in 1720; and, secondly, in 1724, to Mary, daughter of the Rev. James Webster, minister of the Tolbooth church, Edinburgh, by whom also he had several children. His eldest daughter, Jean, was married to the Rev. James Fisher of Glasgow. “During the night on which he finished his earthly career, Mrs. Fisher, having come from Glasgow to visit her dying father, was sitting in the apartment where he lay, and engaged in reading. Awakened from a slumber, he said, ‘What book is that, my dear, you are reading?’ ‘It is your sermon, father,’ she replied, ‘on that text, I am the Lord thy God.’ ‘O woman,’ said he then, ‘that is the best sermon ever I preached.’ The discourse had proved very refreshing to himself, as well as to many of his hearers. A few minutes after that expression had fallen from his lips, he requested his daughter to bring the table and candle near the bed; and having shut his eyes, and laid his hand under his cheek, he quietly breathed out his soul into the hands of his Redeemer, on the 2d of June, 1754. Had he lived twenty days longer, he would have finished the seventy-fourth year of his age; and had he been spared three months more, he would have completed the fifty-first of his ministry, having resided twenty-eight years at Portmoak, and nearly twenty-three at Stirling.” [Life, by Dr. Fraser.] He published at Edinburgh, in 1739, ‘The Sovereignty of Zion’s King,’ in some discourses upon Psalm ii. 6. 12mo. In 1755 appeared a collection of his Sermons, mostly preached upon Sacramental occasions, 8vo; and in 1757, three volumes of his Sermons were printed at Glasgow in 1762, and a fifth at Edinburgh in 1765. “Besides at least six volumes on ‘Catechetical Doctrine,’” says Dr. Fraser, “

written at Portmoak between 1717 and 1723, inclusive, he left in all forty-seven notebooks of evangelical, sacramental, and miscellaneous sermons; fifteen of which books were composed subsequently to his translation to Stirling. Most of them consist of 220 pages; and all of them, with the exception of a few words in common hand interspersed, are written in shorthand characters. Each may contain on an average about thirty-six sermons of an hour’s length. He left also several volumes of expository discourses, including a series of lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, studied and delivered immediately after his admission to his second charge.” [Life, page 341.] The following is a list of his printed discourses:

      The Sovereignty of Zion’s King; in some Discourses upon Psalm ii. 6. Edin. 1739, 12mo.

      A Collection of Sermons, mostly preached upon Sacramental Occasions. Edin. 1755, 8vo.

      Discourses. 1757, 3 vols. 8vo.

      Sermons, Glasgow, 1762, 4 vols, 8vo. A fifth vol. Edin. 1765.

ERSKINE, RALPH, one of the founders of the Secession Church, third son of the Rev. Henry Erskine, minister of Chirnside, by his second wife, Margaret Halcro, was born at the village of Monilaws, Northumberland, March 15, 1685. He was educated, with his brother, Ebenezer, in the university of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1704. During his first session at college, in the winter of 1699-1700, a great fire took place in the Parliament-square, and the house in which he lodged being in that square he narrowly escaped being burned to death. He had to force his way through the flames, carrying a number of his books. Referring to this deliverance a number of years afterwards, he mentions, in his diary, that on a day set apart for private humiliation and prayer, he made it the subject of grateful acknowledgment to God. “I took special notice,” says he, “of what took place upon my first going to Edinburgh to the college, in the burning of the Parliament close; and how mercifully the Lord preserved me, when he might have taken me away in my sin, amidst the flames of that burning, which I can say my own sins helped to kindle.” While engaged prosecuting his theological studies, a considerable part of his time was spent in the family of Colonel Erskine of Cardross, in the capacity of tutor. In June 1709 he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Dunfermline, and, in 1711, he received a unanimous call from the parish of Tulliallan to become their minister; and nearly at the same time he was unanimously called to become the second minister in the collegiate charge of Dunfermline. The latter he accepted. He was ordained on the 7^th August of that year, and about four years and a half after his ordination, Mr. Thomas Buchanan his colleague died, and he was promoted to the first charge.

      In the controversy regarding the Marrow of Modern Divinity, Mr. Ralph Erskine took a deep interest. The synod of Fife, of which he was a member, were peculiarly strict in enforcing compliance with the act of Assembly, passed in 1720, prohibiting all ministers from recommending the Marrow. As Mr. Erskine did not choose to comply with this prohibition, he was formally arraigned before the synod for noncompliance, and strictly charged to be more obedient for the future, on pain of being subjected to censure. The synod farther required that he, as well as the other Marrow-men within their bounds, should subscribe anew the Confession of Faith, in a sense agreeably to the Assembly’s deed of 1720. Mr. Erskine refused to submit to this injunction; but professed his readiness to subscribe anew the Confession of Faith, as received by the Church of Scotland in 1647. [supplement to M’Kerrow’s History of the Secession Church, page 837.] In the famous controversy with the General Assembly, which led to the Secession, concerning the act of Assembly of 1732, with respect to the planting of vacant churches, as related in the life of Ebenezer Erskine, his brother Ralph Erskine adhered to all the protests that were entered in behalf of the four brethren, and was present at Gaiorney Bridge, in December 1733, when the latter formed themselves into the Associate Presbytery, although he took no part in their proceedings. On the 18^th of February, 1737, he formally joined himself to the Seceders, and was accordingly deposed by the General Assembly, along with the other Seceding brethren, in 1740.

      Soon after entering on the ministry, he composed his ‘Gospel Sonnets,’ which have often been reprinted. About 1738 he published his poetical paraphrase of ‘The Song of Solomon.’ Having frequently been requested by the Associate Synod to employ some of his vacant hours in versifying all the Scripture songs, he published, in 1750, a new version of the Book of Lamentations. He had also prepared ‘Job’s Hymns’ for the press, but they did not appear till after his decease. When the rupture took place in the Associate Synod in 1747 on account of the Burgess oath, Mr. Erskine joined the Burgher section, while his son Mr. John Erskine, minister at Leslie, adhered to the Antiburghers. His son James became colleague and successor to his uncle, Ebenezer, at Stirling in January 1752.

      Mr. Erskine died of a nervous fever, November 6, 1752. He was twice married; first, to Margaret daughter of Mr. Dewar of Lassodie, by whom he had ten children; and, secondly, to Margaret, daughter of Mr. Simpson, writer to the signet, Edinburgh, by whom he had four children. It is related that the only amusement in which this celebrated divine indulged was playing on the violin. He was so great a proficient on this instrument, and so often beguiled his leisure hours with it, that the people of Dunfermline believed he composed his sermons to its tones.

      His son, Henry, in a letter addressed to a relative, giving an account of his father’s death, says: “He preached here last Sabbath save one with very remarkable life and fervency. He spoke but little all the time, that the disease did not evidently appear to be present death approaching; the physicians having ordered care to be taken to keep him quiet. But after he had taken the remarkable and sudden change to the worse, which was not till Sabbath, he then spoke a great deal, but could not be understood. Only among his last words he was heard to say, ‘I will be for ever a debtor to free grace,’” Mr. Whitefield, giving an account of the last expressions of several dying Christians, in a sermon preached from Isa. lx. 19, says, “Thus died Mr. Ralph Erskine. His last words were, ‘Victory, victory, victory!’” Mr. Erskine, as a preacher, is said to have had a “pleasant voice, an agreeable manner, a warm and pathetic address.” In his public appearances, he endeavoured to adapt himself to the capacity of his audience; and, instead of using the ‘enticing words of man’s wisdom,’ he addressed to them the truths of the gospel in their genuine purity and simplicity. His style was strictly evangelical and experimental.

      On the 27^th of June, 1849, a monument to his memory was formally inaugurated at Dunfermline. The monument, which consists of a statue of the venerated Seceder, modelled and sculptured in Berrylaw stone by Mr. Handyside Ritchie, is placed on an appropriate pedestal in the area in front of the Queen Anne Street church, of the congregation attending which Mr. Ralph Erskine was minister. The figure is of a large monumental size, and represents Erskine in the dress of the period in which he lived – the full skirted coat, with large cuffs, breeches, and stockings, the clerical costume of the middle of the 18^th century.

      The greater part of Ralph Erskine’s works were originally printed in single sermons and small tracts. The following is a list of them:

      Sermons: with a Preface by the Rev. Dr. Bradbury. London, 1738.

      Gospel Compulsion: a Sermon, preached at the Ordination of Mr. John Hunter. Edin. 1739, 12mo.

      Four Sermons of Sacramental Occasions, on Gal. ii. 20. Edin. 1740, 12mo.

      Chambers of Safety in Time of Danger; a Fast Sermon. Edin. 1740, 12mo.

      A Sermon. Glasg. 1747, 12mo.

      Clean Water; or, The Pure and Precious blood of Christ, for the Cleansing of Polluted Sinners; a Sermon on Ezekiel xxxvi. 25. Glasg. 1747, 12mo.

      A New Version of the Song of Solomon, into Common Metre. Glasg. 1752, 12mo.

      Job’s Hymns; or, a Book of Songs on the Book of Job. Glasg. 1753, 8vo.

      Scripture Songs, in 3 parts. Glasg. 1754, 12mo.

      Gospel Sonnets; or, Spiritual Songs, in six parts, 25^th edition, in which the Holy Scriptures are fully extended. Edin. 1797. 8vo.

      Faith no Fancy, or, a Treatise of Mental Images.

      The Harmony of the Divine Attributes Displayed in the Redemption and Salvation of Sinners by Jesus Christ; a Sermon preached at Dunfermline, 1724, from Psalm lxxxv. 10. Falkirk, 1801, 12mo.

      A Short Paraphrase upon the Lamentations of Jeremiah, adapted to the common times. Glasg. 8vo.

      His Works; consisting principally of Sermons, Gospel Sonnets, and a Paraphrase in Verse of the Song of Solomon, were published at Glasgow, 1764-6, 2 vols. fol. Afterwards printed in 10 vols. 8vo.

ERSKINE, HENRY, third Lord Cardross, an eminent patriot, eldest son of David, second Lord Cardross, by his first wife, Anne, fifth daughter of Sir Thomas Hope, king’s advocate, was born in 1650, and succeeded to the title in 1671. He had been educated by his father in the principles of civil and religious liberty, and he early joined himself to the opposers of the earl of Lauderdale’s administration, in consequence of which he was exposed to much persecution. In 1674 he was fined £5,000 for the then serious offence of his lady’s hearing divine worship performed in his own house by her own chaplain. Of this fine he paid £1,000, and after sic months’ attendance at court, in the vain endeavour to procure a remission of the rest, he was, on August 5, 1675, imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, wherein he continued for four years. In May of that year, while his lordship was at Edinburgh, a party of soldiers went to his house of Cardross at midnight, and after using his lady with much rudeness and incivility, fixed a garrison there to his great loss. In 1677 his lady having had a child baptized by a non-conforming minister, he was again fined in £3,000, although it was done without his knowledge, he being then in prison. In June 1679, the king’s forces, on their march to the west, went two miles out of their road, in order that they might quarter on his estates of Kirkhill and Uphall, in West Lothian.

      On July 30, 1679, Lord Cardross was released, on giving bond for the amount of his fine, and, early in 1680, he repaired to London, to lay before the king a narrative of the sufferings which he had endured; but the Scottish privy council, in a letter to his majesty, accused him of misrepresentation, and he obtained no redress. His lordship now resolved upon quitting his native country, and accordingly proceeded to North America, and established a plantation on Charlestown Neck, in South Carolina. In a few years he and the other colonists were driven from this settlement by the Spaniards, when his lordship returned to Europe, and arriving at the Hague, attached himself to the friends of liberty and the Protestant religion, then assembled in Holland. He accompanied the prince of Orange to England in 1688; and having, in the following year, raised a regiment of dragoons for the public service, he was of great use under General Mackey in subduing the opposition to the new government. In the parliament of 1689 he obtained an act restoring him to his estates. He was also sworn a privy councillor, and constituted general of the mint. He died at Edinburgh May 21, 1693, in the 44^th year of his age.

ERSKINE, JOHN, eleventh earl of Mar, or Marr, as it was originally spelt, eldest son of Charles, tenth earl of the name of Erskine, and Lady Mary Maule, daughter of the earl of Panmure, was born at Allow, in February 1675. He succeeded his father in 1689, and, on coming to the title, found the family estates much involved. Following the footsteps of his father, who joined the revolution party, merely because he considered it his interest so to do, the young earl, on entering into public life, attached himself to the party then in power, at the head of which was the duke of Queensberry, the leader of the Scottish Whigs. He took the oaths and his seat in parliament in Sept. 1696, was sworn in a privy councillor the following year, and was afterwards appointed to the command of a regiment of foot, and invested with the order of the Thistle. In 1704, when the whigs were superseded by the country party, the earl, pursuant to the line of conduct he intended to follow, of making his politics subservient to his interest, immediately paid court to the new administration, by placing himself at the head of such of the duke of Queensberry’s friends as opposed the marquis of Tweeddale and his party. In this situation he showed so much dexterity, and managed his opposition with so much art and address, that he was considered by the Tories as a man of probity, and well inclined to the exiled family. Afterwards, when the Whig party came again into power, he gave them his support, and became very zealous in promoting all the measures of the court, particularly the treaty of union, for which he presented the draught of an act in parliament, in 1705. To reward his exertions, he was, after the prorogation of the parliament, appointed secretary of state for Scotland, instead of the marquis of Annandale, who was displaced, because he was suspected of holding a correspondence with the squadron, who were inclined to support the succession to the crown without, rather than with, the proposed union. His lordship was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers in 1707, and re-elected at the general election the following year, and in 1710 and 1713. By the share he had taken in bringing about the union, Mar had rendered himself very unpopular in Scotland; but he endeavoured to regain the favour of his countrymen, by attending a deputation of Scottish members, consisting of the duke of Argyle, himself, Cockburn, younger of Ormiston, and Lockhart of Carnwath, which waited on Queen Anne in 1712, to inform her of their resolution to move for a repeal of the union with England. When the earl of Findlater brought forward a motion for repeal in the house of lords, Mar spoke strongly in favour of it, and pressed the dissolution of the union as the only means to preserve the peace of the island. He was made a privy-councillor in 1708, and on the death of the duke of Queensberry in 1713, the earl was again appointed secretary of state for Scotland, and thus for the second time joined the Tory party.

      On the death of Queen Anne, on the 1^st of August 1714, the schemes of the Bolingbroke ministry having been baffled by the activity of the leaders of the whigs, his lordship, secretary of state, signed the proclamation of George I., and in a letter to the king, then on his way through Holland, dated Whitehall, August 30, made protestations of his loyalty, and reference to his past services to the government. He likewise procured a letter to be addressed to himself by some of the heads of the Jacobite clans, sais to be drawn up by Lord Grange, his brother, but evidently his own composition, declaring that as they had always been ready to follow his lordship’s directions in serving Queen Anne, they were equally ready to concur with him in serving his majesty. A loyal address of the clans to the king to the same effect was drawn up by his brother, Lord Grange, which, on his majesty’s arrival at Greenwich, he intended to present. But the king was too well aware that, in order to ingratiate himself with Queen Anne, he had procured from the same parties an address of a very opposite character only a few years previous. He was accordingly unnoticed on presenting himself to the king on his landing, and dismissed from office within eight days afterwards.

      Though not possessed of shining talents, he made ample amends for their deficiencies by artifice and an insinuating and courteous deportment, and managed his designs with such prudence and circumspection as to render it extremely difficult to ascertain his object when he desired concealment; by which conduct “he showed himself,” in the opinion of a contemporary, “to be a man of good sense, but bad morals.” [Lockhart, vol. i., p. 436.] The versatility of his politics was perhaps owing rather to the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed than to any innate viciousness of disposition. He was a Jacobite from principle, but as the fortunes of his house had been greatly impaired in the civil war by its attachment to the Stuarts, and, as upon his entrance into public life, he found the cause of the exiled family at a low ebb, he sought to retrieve the losses which his ancestors had sustained; while, at the same time, he gratified his ambition, by aspiring to power, which he could only hope to acquire by attaching himself to the existing government. The loss of a place of five thousand pounds a-year, without any chance of ever again enjoying the sweets of office, was gall and wormwood to such a man. This disappointment, and the studied insult he had received from the king, operating upon a selfish and ambitious spirit, drove him into open rebellion, with no other view than the gratification of his revenge. But whatever were his qualifications in the cabinet, he was without military experience, and consequently unfit to command an army, as the result showed.

      As early as May 1715, a report was current among the Jacobites of Scotland, of the design of the Chevalier de St. George to make a descent on Great Britain, in order to recover the crown, in consequence of which they began to bestir themselves, by providing arms, horses, &c. These and other movements indicated to the government that an insurrection was intended. Bodies of armed men were seen marching towards the Highlands, and a party of Highlanders appeared in arms near Inverlochy, which was, however, soon dispersed. In this situation of matters, the lords-justices sent down to Scotland a considerable number of half-pay officers, to officer the militia of the country, under the direction of Major-General Whitham, then commander-in-chief in Scotland. These prompt measures alarmed the Jacobites, who, after several consultations, returned to their homes. As the lords-justices had received information that the chevalier intended to land in North Britain, they offered a reward of £100,000 sterling for his apprehension.

      On the eve of Mar’s departure from England, to place himself at the head of the intended insurrection in Scotland, he resolved to show himself at court; and, accordingly, he appeared in the presence of King George on the first of August, 1715, with all the complaisance of a courtier, and with that affability of demeanour for which he was so distinguished.

      Having matured his plans and apprised his confederates, he disguised himself by changing his usual dress, and on the following day embarked at Gravesend on board a collier bound for Newcastle. On arriving there he went on board another vessel bound for the Firth of Forth, and was landed at Elie, a small port on the Fife coast, near the mouth of the Firth. Visiting various Jacobite friends on his way, he reached his seat of Kildrummy in the Braes of May on the 18^th, and on the following day summoned a meeting of the neighbouring noblemen and gentlemen to a grand hunting match at Aboyne on the 27^th, which was numerously attended, and where he addressed them in a regular and well ordered speech. The result was an unanimous resolution to take up arms. According to arrangements at a subsequent meeting at the same place on 3d September, he on the 6^th set up the standard of the Pretender at Castletown of Braemar, assuming the title of lieutenant-general of his majesty’s forces in Scotland. The Chevalier was about the same time proclaimed king, under the name of James VIII., at Aberdeen, and various other towns. The earl immediately marched to Dunkeld, and, after a few days’ rest, to Perth, where he established his headquarters. Finding his army increased to about 12,000 men, he resolved to attack Stirling, and accordingly left Perth on November 10; but encountered the royal army, under the command of the Duke of Argyle, at Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane, on the 13^th, when the advantage was on the side of the king’s troops, the rebels being compelled to return to Perth.

      The unfortunate and ill-advised James having landed at Peterhead from France, December 22, 1715, the earl, now created by him duke of Mar, hastened to meet him at Fetteresso, and attended him to Scone, where he issued several proclamations, distinguished, like all his previous ones, by great ability, including one for his coronation of January 23; but soon after they removed to Perth, where it was resolved to abandon the enterprise. The Pretender, with the earl of Mar, Lord Drummond, and others, embarked at Montrose, February 4, in a French ship which had been kept off the coast, and were landed at Waldam, near Gravelines, February 11, 1716. For his share in this rebellion, the earl was attainted by act of parliament, and his estates forfeited.

      His lordship accompanied the Pretender to Rome, and remained in his service for some years, having the chief direction of his affairs. Having, soon after his return, been violently accused by Bolingbroke – his former superior in the English ministry – with regard to the conduct of the rebellion in 1715, he, in order to revenge himself on his rival, prevailed on the duke of Ormond to report, in presence of the Chevalier, certain abusive expressions which Bolingbroke, when in a state of intoxication, had uttered in disparagement of his master. Bolingbroke was, in consequence, deprived of the seals, then possessed by him. He thereupon proffered his services to King George, and some years afterwards obtained a pardon and had his estates restored to him. IN 1721 the earl of Mar left Rome, and, after a short residence in Geneva, where he was subjected to a brief confinement at the instance of the British government, he took up his residence at Paris as minister of James at the French court. During his residence in Geneve, he applied for and received a loan from the earl of Stair, the British ambassador at Paris, and soon thereafter accepted a pension of two thousand pounds from the British government, which, at the same time, allowed his countess and daughter one thousand five hundred pounds annually, of jointure and aliment, out of the produce of his estate.

      These relations with the British ministry, however, induced James gradually to withdraw his confidence from him, and being involved in disputes with parties connected with the household, and accused by Bishop Atterbury of having betrayed the secrets of his master to the English ministry, he was in 1724 dismissed from his post as minister at Paris, and finally broke with the Stuarts in 1725. He prepared a narrative in exculpation, and although his justification is far from complete, it is evident that there exist no sufficient data on which to found a charge of deliberate treachery. His negociations with the earl of Stair, the British ambassador in France, for a pardon, which, however, were unsuccessful, are printed in the Hardwicke Collection of State Papers. In 1729, on account of the bad state of his health, he went to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he died in May 1732. His lordship was twice married; first, to Lady Margaret Hay, daughter of the earl of Kinnoul, by whom he had two sons; and, secondly, to Lady Frances Pierrepont, daughter of Evelyn, duke of Kingston, by whom he had one daughter. His principal occupation in his exile was the drawing of architectural plans and designs. His forfeited estates were bought of government for his son Lord Erskine, by the uncle of the latter, Erskine of Grange.

ERSKINE, JOHN, of Carnock, an eminent lawyer, son of the Hon. Colonel John Erskine of Carnock, third son of Lord Cardross by his second wife Anne, eldest daughter of William Dundas of Kincavel, was born in 1695. His father, from his conscientious support of the presbyterian church, and the civil and religious liberties of the country, during the arbitrary reign of James the Second of England, was obliged to retire to Holland, where he obtained the command of a company in a regiment of foot, in the service of the price of Orange. He was one of the most zealous supporters of the revolution of 1688, and on the occurrence of that event he accompanied the prince to England. As a reward for his service and attachment, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Stirling castle, and a lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of foot, and afterwards received the governorship of the castle of Dumbarton. In the last Scottish parliament, he was representative of the town of Stirling, and was a great promoter of the union. In 1707 he was nominated to a seat in the united parliament of Great Britain, and at the general election in the following year he was chosen member for the Stirling district of burghs. He died at Edinburgh, January 1743, in the 892d year of his age. His son John, the subject of this notice, became a member of the faculty of advocates in 1719; and, in 1737, on the death of Professor Bayne, succeeded him as professor of Scots law in the university of Edinburgh. In 1754 he published his ‘Principles of the Law of Scotland,’ which thenceforth became a manual for students. In 1765 he resigned the professorship, and retired from public life, occupying the next three years chiefly in preparing for publication his ‘Institute of the Law of Scotland,’ which, however, did not appear till 1773, five years after his death. The Institute continued to be regarded as the standard book of reference in the courts of law of Scotland.

      Mr. Erskine died March 1, 1768, at Cardross, the estate of his grandfather, Lord Cardross. He was twice married; first, to Margaret, daughter of the Hon. James Melville of Balgarvie, Fifeshire, of the noble family of Leven and Melville, by whom he had the celebrated Dr. John Erskine, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, the subject of the following notice; and secondly, to Anne, second daughter of Mr. Stirling of Kier, by whom he had four sons and two daughters.

      The following is a list of his works: –

      The Principles of the Law of Scotland, in the order of Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions of that Law. Edin. 1754, 1757, 1764, 8vo. With Notes and Corrections by Gillon. 1809, 8vo.

      Institutes of the Laws of Scotland; in 4 books, in the order of Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions of that Law, Edin. 1773, fol. 2d edition enlarged. Edin. 1773, 1785, fol. 4^th edition enlarged. Edin. 1804, fol. Enlarged with additional Notes, and improved by Gillon. 1805, fol. New edition with Additional Notes by James Ivory, advocate, 1828, 2 vols. fol.

ERSKINE, JOHN, D.D., eldest son of the preceding, was born June 2, 1721. He received the rudiments of his classical education, assisted by a private tutor, at the school of Cupar in Fife, and at the high school of Edinburgh, and entered the university there in the winter of 1734-35. Among his contemporaries at college was Robertson the historian, afterwards principal of the university, with whom he formed an intimate friendship, which, notwithstanding their difference of opinion in matters of church polity in after years, continued to be cherished through life with unabated sincerity. At that period several of the chairs in the university of Edinburgh were occupied by men of considerable eminence. Sir John Pringle, who was afterwards president of the Royal Society of London, was professor of moral philosophy, while Mr. Stevenson ably filled the chair of logic, and Dr. Erskine derived considerable benefit from their lectures. He was originally destined for the bar, a profession in which his father had acquired distinguished reputation, and in which, had he applied himself to it, he had every reason to expect its emoluments and honours. With this view, after his course of philosophy was finished, he attended some of the law classes. His own inclination, however, led him to prefer the church. Possessed of an uncommon seriousness of temper, and a quiet meditative disposition, his attachment to the ministry of the gospel overcame the pride of family, the love of honour, and the temptation of riches. His resolution to study theology met with the most determined opposition from his family, but his path had been chosen, and at last, but with great difficulty, he obtained his father’s consent, and after attending the divinity classes, he was, in 1743, licensed to preach by the presbytery of Dunblane. He preached his first public sermon in the church of Torryburn, of which parish he was afterwards patron, from Psalm lxxxiv. 10, a passage remarkably suitable to his own circumstances. In 1741, before he was twenty years of age, Mr. Erskine had written, and published anonymously, a pamphlet, entitled ‘The Law of Nature sufficiently propagated to the Heathen World; or an Enquiry into the ability of the Heathens to discover the Being of a God, and the Immortality of Human Souls,’ being intended as an answer to the erroneous doctrines maintained by Dr. Campbell, professor of divinity in the university of St. Andrews, in his treatise on ‘The Necessity of Revelation.’ Having sent a copy of his pamphlet to Dr. Warburton and Dr. Doddridge, they both expressed their high approval of it, in a correspondence which it was the means of opening up between them.

      In May 1744 Mr. Erskine was ordained minister of Kirkintilloch, in the presbytery of Glasgow. In 1754 he was translated to the parish of Culross, in the presbytery of Dunfermline, and in June 1758 he was called to the New Greyfriars church, Edinburgh. His ‘Theological Dissertations’ appeared in 1765, and in November 1766, the university of Glasgow conferred on him the degree of D.D. In July 1767, he was united with his early friend Dr. Robertson in the collegiate charge of the Old Greyfriars parish of that city, a connexion which subsisted till the death of Dr. Robertson in 1793. It is not easy to conceive two individuals who differed more in spirit, preaching, and various parts of Christian character, than these two amen, both eminent, though in very different respects. Dr. Robertson, a man of the finest taste and talents, and of the most winning and courteous manners, was devoted to the pursuit of literary renown. He was the leader of the anti-evangelical or extreme moderate party in the church, and was more prominent as such than, with all his genius, distinguished as a preacher of the gospel. Dr. Erskine, on the other hand, was a man deeply versed in religious knowledge, devoted to his Master’s work, and alive to everything which involved his glory; who regarded Christianity as a revelation which chiefly relates to things invisible and eternal. Dead to the world, and ambitious only of the approbation of God, he was looked up to as the father of the orthodox clergy, and as the friend of all good men. In every point of view, it was a singular combination. That Dr. Erskine had some way of reconciling his mind to the propriety of a situation, the irksomeness of which he must have felt, in which he every Lord’s day listened to doctrines very different from his own, and had to co-operate where there could be no cordial agreement, we are bound to believe. But it often gave rise, it is said, to rather awkward collisions. The story is told that his colleague one morning had given his audience a very flattering picture of virtue, concluding with declaring his conviction, that if ever perfect virtue should appear on the face of the earth, the world would fall down and worship it. Dr. Erskine took an opportunity, as it is reported, of advertising to the same subject in the afternoon, and with equal confidence, and much greater truth, declared, that when the most perfect virtue that ever adorned humanity, descended to the earth, the world, instead of admiring it, cried, “Crucify it! Crucify it!”

      His great desire to obtain the most authentic information as to the state of religion in the provinces of North America, as well as one the continent of Europe, led him into an extensive correspondence with divines and eminent men in all parts of the world. With America, we are told, his intercourse began at a very early period; and there were few of its more celebrated writers or preachers with whom he did not exchange books and letters. This practice, we are told, added much to his labour, not only by an increased and voluminous epistolary intercourse, but in “being called upon, by the friends of deceased divines, to correct and superintend the publication of posthumous works.” The celebrated Jonathan Edwards was one of his earliest and most esteemed trans-Atlantic correspondents. To assist him in carrying on the Arminian controversy, Dr. Erskine sent him many useful books, and by his advice and exhortations powerfully contributed to the production of some of his most valuable publications. The greater part of the works of President Edwards, Dickenson, Stoddart, and Fraser of Alness, were edited by him at the request of the relatives of these distinguished men, which necessarily entailed upon him an amount of labour that, though very great, was cheerfully undertaken by him.

      For more than half a century Dr. Erskine was the centre of one of the most extensive religious circles in Great Britain, or perhaps anywhere else; and such was his anxiety to be informed of the state of religion, morality, and learning on the continent, that at an advanced period of his life he made himself master of the Dutch and German languages. In 1790 he published the first volume of his valuable ‘Sketches and Hints of Church History and Theological Controversy, chiefly translated or abridged from modern foreign writers,’ the second volume of which appeared in 1799. His zeal in the cause of religious truth led him to take a principal share in the business of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, of which, so long as his strength remained, he was an active and useful member. In the Church courts he was for many years the leader of the popular party, while his colleague, Dr. Robertson, with whom he always continued on terms of intimate friendship, was the head of the moderate side of the Church.

      In political matters Dr. Erskine entertained bold and independent opinions, which he did not scruple to express freely when occasion demanded. The breach with the American colonies he viewed with much concern, and considered the war which followed as on both sides unnatural, unchristian, and impolitic. He published several pamphlets on the subject, before its commencement, and during its progress, which are written with ability and candour. One of these, a discourse, entitled ‘Shall I go to War with my American Brethren?’ is said to have given so great offence to those in power, that no bookseller would run the risk of its publication, and it appeared at London in 1769, without any publisher’s imprint being attached to it. The discourse, however, was reprinted at Edinburgh in 1776, with the author’s name, and the addition of a preface and appendix, even more in opposition to the views of government than the discourse itself. He was opposed to the constitution given to Canada, conceiving that the Roman Catholic religion had been too much favoured. He dreaded the progress of popery, both at home and aborad, and thought it his duty to warn his countrymen against its dangerous doctrines, and insidious wiles. In 1778, when an attempt was made to repeal certain enactments against the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, he entered into a correspondence with Mr. Burke, on the subject, which was afterwards published. The bill of 1780, for relieving the Roman Catholics, was also opposed by him. However tolerant his sentiments, and anxious to admit all classes to equal liberty of worship, he could not but consider popery in its political as well as religious aspect, and as a system of persecution and superstition he utterly condemned it. On the subject of the Catholic controversy, Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen took the opposite side to Dr. Erskine, and published an ably written ‘Address to the People of Scotland, upon the alarms that have been raised in regard to Popery.’ The General Assembly, on the other hand, supported the views of Dr. Erskine, and deliberately decided against the Catholic claims.

      Hi had been from his infancy of a weak bodily constitution, and as old age approached his appearance was that of a man whose strength was gone. For several winters he had been unable to preach regularly, and for the last sixteen months of his life he had preached none at all, his voice having become so weak as to be incapable of making himself heard. His mental faculties, however, remained unimpaired to the last. Since 1801 he had commenced a periodical publication, five numbers of which were published, entitled ‘Religious Intelligence from Aborad;’ and, the week previous to his death, he sent his bookseller notice that he had materials collected for another number. On Tuesday, January 18, 1803, he was occupied till a late hour in his study. About four o’clock of the morning of the 19^th he was taken suddenly ill, and almost immediately expired, in the eighty-second year of his age. Besides the works already mentioned, and various others of less general interest, Dr. Erskine was the author of two volumes of sermons, the one published by himself in 1798, and the other edited after his death by the late Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff, and published in 1804. In Guy Mannering, Sir Walter Scott has taken occasion to introduce a graphic and interesting description of the person and manner of preaching of this celebrated divine. “His external appearance,” he says, “was not prepossessing. A remarkably fair complexion, strangely contrasted with a black wig, without a grain of powder; a narrow chest and a stooping posture; hands which, placed like props on either side of the pulpit, seemed necessary rather to support the person than to assist the gesticulation of the preacher; a gown (not even that of Geneva), a tumbled band, and a gesture, which seemed scarcely voluntary, were the first circumstances that struck a stranger.” The annexed woodcut is a faithful representation of his attitude in the pulpit on commencing his discourse.

[woodcut of John Erskine, D.D.]

      His body was interred in the Greyfriars churchyard. By his wife, the Hon. Christian Mackay, third daughter of George third Lord Reay, he had a family of fourteen children, but only four survived him, namely, David Erskine, Esq. of Carnock, and three daughters, one of whom was the mother of James Stuart, Esq. of Dunearn, who shot Sir Alexander Boswell in a duel in 1822.

      Dr. Erskine was remarkable for his simplicity of manners, unaffected humility, and kindly and benevolent disposition. His temper was ardent, his affections warm, and his attachments, like his piety, constant and sincere. Of his good nature the following anecdote is told. For several Sundays he had returned from church without his pocket handkerchief, and could not account for the loss. Mrs. Erskine, suspecting an elderly-looking poor woman who constantly occupied a seat on the stair leading to the pulp