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ERSKINE, HENRY, third lord
Cardross, one of the most distinguished patriots of the seventeenth century,
was the eldest son of the second lord Cardross, who, in his turn, was
grandson to John, seventh earl of Marr, the eminent and faithful counsellor
of King James VI. By his mother, Anne Hope, the subject of our memoir was
grandson to Sir Thomas Hope, king’s advocate, the chief legal counsellor of
the covenanters in the early years of the civil war. It may also be
mentioned, that colonel Erskine of Carnock, father to the author of "the
Institutes," was a half-brother of lord Cardross.
The father of this eminent
patriot, was one of the seven Scottish lords who protested against the reddition
of Charles I. to the English army, and he educated his son in the same
principles of honour and fidelity to the laws, and to personal engagements,
which inspired himself. Lord Henry was born about 1650, and succeeded his father
in 1671. Having also succeeded to all the liberal principles of the family, he
at once joined himself, on entering life, to the opposers of the Lauderdale
administration. This soon exposed him to persecution, and in 1674 he was fined
in 5,000 pounds, because his lady had heard worship performed in his own house
by a non-conforming chaplain. His lordship paid 1,000 pounds of this fine, and
after attending the court for six months, in the vain endeavour to procure a
remission for the rest, was imprisoned in Edinburgh castle, where he continued
for four years. While he was thus suffering captivity, a party of soldiers
visited his house, and, after treating his lady with the greatest incivility,
and breaking up the closet in which he kept his papers, established a garrison,
which continued there for eight years. Two years afterwards, while he was still
in prison, his lady having been delivered of a child, whom she caused to be
baptized (without his knowledge), by a non-conforming clergyman, another fine of
3,000 pounds was imposed upon him, being purposely thus severe, in order that he
might be retained in prison, through inability to pay it. So meanly
revengeful was the feeling of the government, that, when the royal forces were
on their march to Bothwell bridge, in June 1679, they were taken two miles out
of their proper line of march, in order that they might quarter upon his
lordship’s estates of Kirkhill and Uphall, and do them all the mischief
possible.
In July 1679, lord Cardross was
released, on giving bond for the amount of his fine. He went to court, to give
an account of his sufferings, and solicit some redress. But the infamous privy
council of Scotland counteracted all his efforts. Finding no hope of further
comfort in his own country, and that there was little probability of the British
nation contriving to throw off the odious bondage in which it was kept, he
resolved to seek refuge and freedom in a distant land. He perhaps acted upon the
philosophical maxim, thus laid down by Plato, "If any one shall observe a great
company run out into the rain every day, and delight to be wet in it, and if he
judges, that it will be to little purpose for him to go and persuade them to
come into their houses and avoid the rain, so that all that can be expected from
his going to speak to them, will be, that he will be wet with them; would it not
be much better for him to keep within doors, and preserve himself, since he
cannot correct the folly of others?" Lord Cardross engaged with those who
settled on Charlestown Neck, in South Carolina, where he established a
plantation. From thence, a few years afterwards, he and his people were driven
by the Spaniards, many of the colonists being killed, and almost all their
effects destroyed. Dispirited, but not broken by his misfortunes, the Scottish
patriot returned to Europe, and took up his abode at the Hague, where many
others of his persecuted countrymen now found shelter. Entering into the service
of Holland, he accompanied the prince of Orange on his expedition to England,
his son David commanding a company in the same army. He was of great service in
Scotland, under general Mackay, in promoting the revolution settlement, which at
length put an end to the miseries endured for many years by himself, and by his
country at large. He was now restored to his estates, sworn a privy counsellor,
and honoured with much of the friendship and confidence of king William. His
health, however, previously much impaired by his imprisonment, and the fatigue
of his American plantation, sunk under his latter exertions, and he died at
Edinburgh, May 21st, 1693, in the forty-fourth year of his age. The late
venerable earl of Buchan, and his two brothers, Henry and Thomas Erskine, were
the great-grandchildren of lord Cardross. |
