In ‘Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk’ Lockhart thus describes the appearance of the earl: ‘I do not remember to have seen a more exquisite old head, and think it is no wonder that so many portraits have been painted of him. The features are all perfect, but the greatest beauty is in the clear blue eyes, which are chased in his head in a way that might teach something to the best sculptor in the world. Neither is there any want of expression in these fine features, although indeed they are very far from conveying the same ideas of power and penetration which fall from the overhanging shaggy eyebrows of his brother.’ The portraits and busts taken of him were very numerous. The painting of him when Lord Cardross, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in a Vandyck dress, is in the hall of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It was engraved in mezzotinto by Finlayson in 1765. A profile by Tassie in 1783 was published in 1797 in ‘Iconographia Scotica.’ A painting by Runciman is in the museum of the Perth Antiquarian Society. To the Faculty of Advocates he presented a portrait in crayons with an inscription in highly laudatory terms written by himself. His portrait when an old man, by George Watson, president of the Royal Scottish Academy, is engraved in Ferguson's ‘Henry Erskine and his Times.’ The earl is the subject of a very clever caricature in highland dress by Kay. He married at Aberdeen in 1771 his cousin Margaret, eldest daughter of William Fraser of Fraserfield, Aberdeenshire, but by her, who died 12 May 1819, he had no issue. He had, however, a natural son, Sir David Erskine, who is separately noticed.
He was succeeded as twelfth earl of Buchan by his nephew, Henry David, son of his brother, the Hon. Henry Erskine [q. v.] The twelfth earl, born in July 1783, died 13 Sept. 1857. He married thrice, and David Stuart Erskine, the eldest surviving son by his first wife, Elizabeth Cole, daughter of Brigadier-general Sir Charles Shipley, succeeded him as thirteenth earl of Buchan.
[Douglas's Peerage (Wood), i. 280; Kay's Edinburgh Portraits, i. 286–9; Gent. Mag. vol. xcix. pt. ii. pp. 75–8; Nichols's Illustrations, vi. 489–521 and passim; ib. Literary Anecdotes, passim; Lord Campbell's Life of Lord Erskine in Lives of the Chancellors; Works of Robert Burns; Lockhart's Life of Scott; Horace Walpole's Letters; Lord Brougham's Autobiography; Life of Archibald Constable; Ferguson's Henry Erskine and his Times, pp. 477–505 and passim.]
ERSKINE, EBENEZER (1680–1754), founder of the Scottish secession church, born on 22 June (baptised 24 July) 1680 at Dryburgh, Berwickshire (Harper, who gives the record of birth and baptism from H. Erskine's manuscript), was the fourth son of Henry Erskine (1624–1696) [q. v.], by his second wife, Margaret (d. 14 Jan. 1725), daughter of Hugh Halcro of Orkney. He was educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.A. (as ‘Ebenezer Areskine’) on 28 June 1697. After graduation he became chaplain and tutor in the family of John, earl of Rothes, at Leslie House, Fife. Having been licensed by Kirkcaldy presbytery on 11 Feb. 1703, he was called to Portmoak, Kinross-shire, on 26 May, and ordained there on 22 Sept. by the same presbytery. In the following year he married. Always diligent in the duties of his office, he was without distinct evangelical convictions, until the chance overhearing of a religious conversation between his wife and his brother Ralph [q. v.] left an indelible impression on his mind. His popularity dates from the impulse thus given to his preaching, which was homely in style (he wrote, but did not read, his sermons), yet dignified by a rich voice and a majestic manner. To his sermons and communions the people flocked from all parts, and his elders had to provide for over two thousand communicants. The attitude which he now began to take in ecclesiastical politics did not commend him to the leaders of the church. On 17 Jan. 1712 the parish of Burntisland, Fife, was divided about the election of a minister, and competing calls were made out in favour of Erskine and another; the commission of assembly gave the preference to the patron's nominee. This is said to have been the first instance of the kind since the revolution; by an act which shortly afterwards (22 May) received the royal assent the rights of patrons were fully restored. Immediately before the introduction of the patronage act the episcopal clergy had been protected by a toleration act (1712), which imposed the oath of abjuration on the ministers of both churches. This touched the consciences of those who, while rejecting the ‘pretender,’ found themselves unable to swear that he was no son of James II; moreover the oath was construed as affirming the principle that the monarch must adhere to the Anglican communion. On both these grounds Erskine refused the oath, remaining a non-abjurer to the last. The penalties of the act (fine and expulsion) were not enforced against the presbyterian clergy, and the non-abjurors were sustained by popular sentiment. On 2 March 1713 Erskine was called to Tulliallan, Perthshire, but his translation was refused by the presbyteries.
He sided with Boston in the ‘Marrow con-
