1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rosslyn, Earls of

ROSSLYN, EARLS OF. The first earl of Rosslyn was Alexander Wedderburn (see below), who was succeeded by his nephew, James St Clair Erskine (1762-1837), a son of Wedderburn’s sister by her marriage with Sir Henry Erskine (d. 1765), a Scottish baronet and soldier. Entering the army in 1776, James Erskine served in Portugal, in Denmark and in the Netherlands, and became a general in 1814. From 1782 until 1805, when he became a peer, he was a member of parliament; a Tory politician and an associate of the duke of Wellington, he was lord privy seal in 1829–30 and lord president of the council in 1834–35. He inherited the estates of the family of St Clair and took this name in 1789, and he died on the 18th of January 1837. His son, James Alexander (1802–1866), became 3rd earl, and in 1890 the latter’s grandson, James Francis Harry (b. 1869), became 5th earl.