MAR, 237 Prince lie lied the country, 1 Feb. following and was attainted by Act of Pari. 17 Feb. 1715/6, as from 19 Jan., whereby all his honours (and his estate valued at £1,679 per annum) became forfeited.'^) He accompanied hi* Chief fthe titular King. James lit) to Rome, by whom be was in 1715,0*) n: DUKE OP MAR [X.], and in 1716, K.G-,, and to whom he was a chief adviser till 1724, when, after a long series of intrigue*,!*) he finally abandoned his cause. He III. firstly, 6 April 1703 (lie. Hp. of London), at Twickenham, Mid*., Margaret, 1st da. of Thomas (Hay), 6th Eakl of Kinnihtl [S.], by Elizabeth, da. of William iDRt/MMOKD), 1st Viscount Stiiath- allan [S.] She, who was 6. 30 Sep. 16S6, d. at Dupplin, 25 April 1707, in her 21st year and was bur. 3 May at Alloa. Fun. entry at Lyon office. He m. secondly, 26 July 1714, at Acton, Midx., Frances, da. of Evelyn (PikrBEPOSt), 1st Duke ok KlXuroN-iniN-II ii.i,, by his first wife, Mary, da. of William (Fkiloinu), E.utL ok Dkntiigii. He d. May 1732, at Aix-la-Chapelle, aged 57. His widow, who had been declared a lunatic in March 1730, d. 1 and was bur. 9 March 1761, at Marylebone, aged above SO. [Thomas Erskine, dyted Lord Erskine, 1st and only surv. *. and h., by first wife, b. about 1705 ; M.P. for Stirling Burghs, 172S-34; for co. Stirling, 1747, and for co. Clackmannan, 1717-51 ; Commissary of Stores at Oil iraltar, 1 729. Owing to the attainder of 1716 he did nut sue. to the peerage at his lather's death, in May 1732, but in 1739 the family estate of Alloa, which had been forfeited, was con- veyed to him.( a ) He hi., 1 Oct. 1711, at Hopetoun house, Charlotte, Sth da. of Charles (Hope), 1st E.UI1. of HOPSTOON fS.] He if. s.p., 16 March 1706, aged about 60, at Gayfield. Will pr. 8 Sep. 1766. His widow, who was b. 4 March 1720, d. 24 Nov. 1788, at Edinburgh.]
- * * ♦
XXIV, 23 and 7. John Francis Erskine, of Alloa, co. and ] gg4. Clackmannan, s. Hud h. of James Erskine, Knight Marischal [S.J VII. I ((/. Feb. 1785, aged 71), by (his first cousin) Frances, only da. and
- (since 1766) beir of line of John, the attainted Eahi. OI M.
abovenamed (being only child of her mother, the Earl's second wife), which James Erskine was 3d but (since 1771) eldest surv. s. ami h. of the Hon. James Eicski.ne, of Orange, next br. to the said John, Eaiil of MaB above- (•) See vol. iii, p. 192, note " a," sub " DuUus," for a list of the peerages forfeited by the insurrection of 1715. 0*) See vol. i, p. 59, note " b," sub " Albemarle," for a list of " Jacobite Peerages." ( c ) The following is the character given of him by Macky when "30 years old" (1703) " He is a very good manager in his private affairs which were in disorder when bis father died and is a staunch countryman ; fair complexioued, low stature," to which Dean Swift adds, " He is crooked ; he seems to be a gentleman of good sense and good nature." Both these characters, however, seem too favourable The Master of Sinclair (Memoirs. 59). says that he inherited from his mother the "hump he has got on Irs back and his dissolute, malicious, meddling spirit, while Hishop Atterbury says that " It was impossible for him ever to play a fair game or to mean but one thing at a time." He was in fact equally distrusted by the Jacobite party and the Government, and was popularly known as " Bobbing John." () The friends of the family were permitted to re-purchase from the Government certain of the forfeited estates including Alloa for the heir of the house. This was completed in 1725 " by terms of this entail (1) the destination is to heirs general in preference to heirs male collateral of whom the nearest was Lord Grange [i.e., the Hon. Thomas Erskine, a Lord of Session, next br. to the attainted Karl], himself the principal trustee. The attainted Earl's daughter succeeded under the entail, and, on her death, her son, the afterwards restored Earl (2) it was obligatory on heirs general, being strangers to the house of Erskine to adopt the name and arms of the Erskines, Karls of Mar (3) should the attainder be reversed the same class of heirs bad to adopt the title dignity and honours of the family. The opinion of Lord Grange, as heir male, a trustee and a Lord of Session, was thus that the dignity was descendible to heirs general." [See "A" as in note " b," p. 218 (vol. ii, p. xviJJ aud it is also evident that the clause as to adopting " the name and arms of Erskine " would not apply to the heirs male.
