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ERSKINE, DAVID, better
known by his judicial designation of lord Dun, an eminent lawyer and moral
writer, was born at Dun, in the county of Angus, in the year 1670. After
receiving his education, partly at the university of St Andrews, and partly
at that of Paris, he was, in 1696, called to the Scottish bar, where he soon
distinguished himself as a pleader. Though the representative of the
celebrated laird of Dun, whose efforts in behalf of the Reformation have
endeared his name to the Scottish people, David Erskine was a zealous
jacobite, and friend to the non-jurant episcopal clergy. As a member,
moreover, of the last Scottish parliament, he gave all possible opposition
to the union. In 1711, the tory ministry of queen Anne appointed him one of
the judges of the court of session; and in 1713, through the same patronage,
he became a commissioner of the court of justiciary. These offices he held
till 1750, when old age induced him to retire. In 1754, lord Dun published a
volume of moral and political reflections, which was long known under the
title of "Lord Dun’s Advices," but is now almost forgotten. His
lordship died in 1755, aged eighty-five. By his wife, Magdalen Riddel, of
the family of Riddel of Haining, in Selkirkshire, he left a son, John, who
succeeded him in his estate, and a daughter, Anne, who was first married to
James, lord Ogilvy, son of David, third laird of Airly, and secondly to Sir
James Macdonald of Sleat. |
