Features: Scottish Clan Early Genealogy - Clan Erskine

Motto: Je Pense Plus (I think more)
Historic Seat: Alloa Tower
District: Clackmannanshire
Associated Surnames: Askin, Mar, Miller
Associated Tartans:

Early Erskine Genealogy and History:
(Excerpt from "The Scottish Clans and Their Tartans", James Grant, 1906)

Sir 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 Maclolm, ancestor of the Erskines of Kinnoull. 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 Flodden¹, 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, who line became extinct on the death of Methven, 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, 1866, 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 1565. He died in 1888, and his son Walter John is now twelfth Ear 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 Erskine, 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) James, the eldest was created Earl of Buchan, and this title ended in his descendants on the death of William, eighth Earl, 1695. (2) Henry, the second son, was the father of James, Lord Cardross, and his descendant the fourth Lord became ninth Earl of Buchan. 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 England, and his descendants still enjoy this title.

(End excerpt)

Next page: Clan Farquharson

Footnotes:

¹ The Battle of Flodden (1513): The Battle of Flodden Field was fought on 9 September 1513, in Northumberland England between an army of Scots under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey. Read more about the Battle of Flodden at Wikipedia.