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10
ERSKINE.
R ROBERT ERSKINE, Chamberlain of Scotland, 1350-57, married first, Beatrix,
daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Crawford, and widow of Archibald Douglas,
by whom he had two sons, Thomas, his heir, and Malcolm, ancestor of the Erskines
of Kinnonll. Sir Robert married, secondly, Christian, widow of Sir Edward Keith,
and daughter of Sir John Menteith by Elyne, daughter of Gratney, seventh Earl of
Mar. Sir Robert's eldest son by first marriage, Thomas, married Janet Keith,
daughter of his step-mother by her first husband, and had issue, Robert, created
Lord Erskine, and John, ancestor of the Erskines of Dun. The great-grandson of
Robert, Lord Erskine, i.e. Robert, fourth Lord, was killed at the battle of Flodden,
and was succeeded by his son James as fifth Lord, who married and left two sons;
the younger, Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, had a son, Thomas, created Earl of
Kellie, whose line became extinct on the death of Metbven, tenth Earl, 1829 ; the
elder son, John, sixth Lord Erskine, was in 1565 created Earl of Mar, or was restored as seventeenth
Earl of Mar by Queen Mary. He died in 1572 and was succeeded by his son John as eighteenth or
second Earl. This nobleman was twice married, and his great-great-grandson (by his first marriage)
John, twenty-second or sixth Earl, is well known in connection with the Scottish rising of 1715.
His descendant John Francis Miller, twenty-fifth or ninth Earl, successfully claimed the earldom
of Kellie on the extinction of the junior branch of the family referred to above, but dying without
issue, 186(5, his cousin, Walter Coningsby, succeeded as twelfth Earl of Kellie, and also claimed the
earldom of Mar, but his claim was resisted by John Francis Erskine Goodeve, the nephew of the
last (twenty-fifth or ninth) Earl. In 1875 the House of Lords decided that Walter Henry, thirteenth
Earl of Kellie (son of the twelfth Earl), had made out his claim to the earldom of Mar, dated i:>(5.*).
He died in 1888, and his son Walter John is now twelfth Earl of Mar and fourteenth Earl of Kellie.
Doubts have arisen about the verdict of 1875, the House of Lords in 1885 passed an Act by which
the ancient dignity of Mar of 1404 or earlier, became vested in John Francis Erskine Goodeve
Erbkine, the other claimant mentioned above, who thus became twenty-sixth Earl of Mar. Having
now completed the account of the descendants of the first marriage of John, eighteenth or second
Earl of Mar, we turn to his second marriage by which he had a number of sons ; (1) .lames, thu
eldest, was created Earl of Buchan, and this title ended in his descendants on the death of William,
eighth Earl, ltii>5. (2) Henry, the second son, was the father of James, Lord Cardross, and lii.s
descendant the fourth Ix>rd became ninth Earl of Buehan. From the twelfth Earl the present Earl
descends, and from the brother of the twelfth Earl come the Lords Erskine. (3) Charles, the third
son, was the father of another Charles, created a Baronet, whose descendant, the sixth Baronet,
inherited the Earldom of Rosslyn from his maternal grandfather, Alexander Wedderburn, Lord
Chancellor of England, and his descendants still enjoy this title.