THE precise time when or by whom the appellation of Erskine was first assumed cannot be shown, yet it is certain that it was derived from the barony of Erskine in Renfrewshire, and thus as a local surname bears the stamp of antiquity. Mention of this noble house first appears in the time of Alexander II, in the twelfth year of whose reign,

HENRY DE ERSKINE witnessed the gift which Amalek, brother of Maldwin, Earl of Lennox, made, to the Canons of Paisly, of the patronage of the church of Rosemeth, with the titles thereunto belonging.

SIR JOHN DE ERSKINE, his son and successor, likewise witnessed a donation made by Walter Steward, Earl of Menteith, to the Abbot of Paisly. The grandson of this Sir John, SIR WILLIAM ERSKINE, a strenuous asserter of the right of Robert Bruce, joined, in 1322, the Earl of Murray and Sir James Douglas in an expedition into England, here his gallant behaviour procured for him the honour of knighthood and other marks of the royal favour. He was succeeded by his son, SIR ROBERT ERSKINE, whose son and successor, SIR THOMAS ERSKINE, espoused for his second wife Janet Keith, only child of Sir Edward Keith, Mareschal of Scotland, and great grand-daughter of Gratney Marr, eleventh Earl of Marr. He was succeeded by his eldest son,

VOL. VI.-NO. I.

SIR ROBERT ERSKINE, of Erskine, who upon the death of Alexander, Earl of Marr, in 1436, laid claim to that earldom in right of his mother. His claim, however, continued a plea with the crown, which was not determined at his decease in 1453. His son and successor,

THOMAS ERSKINE, prosecuted with vigour his father's pretensions to the earldom, but having the powerful party of the court for his opponents, a decree was given against him in parliament on the 5th November 1457. In the following year he had a charter, to THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE, of the lands of Dalnotter in Lennox. He left a son and successor,

ALEXANDER,Second Lord Erskine, governor of Dumbarton Castle in the reign of King James IV, and a privy councillor to that prince. He died in 1510, and was succeeded by his son,

ROBERT, third Lord Erskine, who fell at the battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513, and was succeeded by his son,

JOHN, fourth Lord Erskine. This nobleman married Lady Margaret Campbell, eldest daughter of Archibald, second Earl of Argyll, and dying in 1552, was succeeded by his eldest son,

JOHN, fifth Lord Erskine, a distinguished statesman in the reign of Queen Mary. In 1565, he renewed the claim of his family to

B

the Earldom of Marr, and having made a fair title through a long deduced pedigree, his pretensions were allowed, and ratified by parliament. In 1571, upon the death of Matthew, Earl of Lennox, the Earl of Marr was, by the unanimous consent of the King's party, chosen Regent of Scotland in the room of that nobleman. This high office he held but thirteen months, when dying the 28th October 1572, he was succeeded by his only

son,

JOHN, of right seventh Earl of Marr, of the Erskine race. On the 27th March 1604 he obtained from James VI the munificent grant of all the lands, baronies, &c. which belonged to the Priory of Inchmahomo, and the Abbeys of Dryburgh and Kambuskenneth, all erected and incorporated into a free Lordship and Barony, to be called the Lordship of Cardross, which was confirmed by act of parliament, passed 19th July 1606, conferring upon the earl the honour and precedency of a Lord of Parliament, as Baron Cardross. And by a subsequent charter, 10th June 1610, he acquired the right of assigning the said Barony to whom soever he thought proper. He had like wise a charter, on his own resignation, of the Earldom of Marr, Lordships of Strathdown, Strathdee, Garioch, Alloa, &c.; the inheritable offices of Captain of the Castle of Stirling, and Sheriff of the Shire thereof, &c. &c., to him and his heirs, and erecting the whole into the Earldom of Marr, 3rd February 1620. The Earl married first, Anne, second daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, and had an only son, JAMES, his successor in the Earldom of Marr. He espoused, secondly, Lady Mary Stewart, second daughter of Esme, Duke of Lennox, and had, with other issue,

JAMES, of whom presently. HENRY, to whom his father assigned the peerage of Cardross, but who dying before the Earl, the Barony devolved at his lordship's decease in 1634, upon the said Henry's son and successor, David ERSKINE, Second Lord Cardross, whose grandson was DAVID, fourth Lord, afterwards inheritor of the Earldom of Buchan.

JAMES ERSKINE, the second son of the Earl of Marr, having espoused MARY, COUNTESS OF BUCHAN, became SIXTH EARL OF BUCHAN in right of his wife, on whose resignation he obtained a charter of the Earldom to him, and Mary, Countess of Buchan, his wife, remainder to the heirs male of their bodies, which failing, to the

nearest lawful heirs male, and assigns of the said sixth Earl. He was one of the Lords of the Bedchamber to Charles I, and resided much in England, where he died in 1640, having survived his Countess twelve years. He was succeeded by his son,

JAMES, seventh Earl, who died in 1664, and was succeeded by his only son WILLIAM, eighth Earl, on whose death in 1695, the issue male of James and Mary, Earl and Countess of Buchan, became extinct. In consequence, however, of a deed of entail, executed in 1677 by the last Earl,

DAVID, fourth Lord Cardross, succeeded as ninth Earl of Buchan. This nobleman dying in 1745, was succeeded by his son, HENRY DAVID, tenth Earl, who left, with other issue, three sons; DAVID STEWART, his successor; HENRY, an eminent Scottish barrister, father of Henry David, present Earl of Buchan; and

THE HONOURABLE THOMAS ERSKINE, who having served both in the army and navy, devoted at length his talents to the bar, to which he was called in 1777. Gifted with the most powerful eloquence, Mr. Erskine attained at once the summit of his profession as an advocate; in which capacity he continued until 1806, when he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, and elevated to the peerage 8th April, in the same year as BARON ERSKINE of Restormel Castle. His lordship died 17th Nov. 1823, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

DAVID MONTAGU, present peer, who in 1800 espoused FRANCES, daughter of General Cadwallader of Philadelphia, the lady whose portrait forms this month's illustration, and has issue,

Thomas Americus, married 12th May

1830, Louisa, relict of Thomas Leigh, Esq. of Adlington House, CheshireJohn Cadwallader, in the Hon. East India Company's Civil Service at Bengal, married 30th April 1829, Margaret, youngest daughter of the late John Martin, Esq.-David-Edward Morris -James Stuart-Frances, married Nov. 1824, to Gabriel Shawe, Esq.-Mary, married 16th June 1832, to Human Count de Baumgarten of BavariaSevilla, married 23rd Dec. 1830, to Henry Francis Howard Esq., second son of Henry Howard of Corby, Esq.Stewarta, married 26th Oct. 1828, to Yeats Brown, Esq.-Elizabeth, married 1st April 1832, to St. Vincent K. Hawkins Whitshed, Esq.-Harriet-JanePlumer.