ill-assorted second marriage. He died on the 17th November, 1823, in his seventy-third year, on his road to Scotland. His remains were borne to Uphall in the county of Linlithgow, and there interred, without ceremony. No marble monument marks the lonely spot, but the fame of the great orator will ever live in those masterpieces of eloquence with which he captivated the understandings, aroused the passions, and enlisted the sympathies of his hearers. Though the persons and circumstances that invoked his forensic genius have passed away, their historical interest only having survived the flight of time, Lord Erskine's fervid harangues, stamped as they are by unrivalled elegance of diction, vigour of conception, and rhetorical brilliancy, but above all, by the uncompromising spirit of truth and justice which characterized the man, will ever command, by their intrinsic excellence, the admiration of every ardent devotee of the sublime and beautiful in literary composition.—F. J. H.
ERSKINE, David, usually designated Lord Dun, an eminent Scotch lawyer, was born in 1655. He was educated at St. Andrews and at Paris, and was called to the bar in 1696. Though his ancestors were staunch supporters of the presbyterian cause, David Erskine was a zealous jacobite and episcopalian. He was a member of the last Scottish parliament, and a strenuous opponent of the union with England. He was appointed one of the judges of the court of session in 1711, and two years later became also a commissioner of the court of justiciary. He retired from office in 1750, and in 1754 published a volume of moral and political reflections, entitled "Lord Dun's Advices."—He died in 1770, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.—J. T.
ERSKINE, Ebenezer, the Father of the Secession Church in Scotland, was born on the 22nd of June, 1680. It is supposed that Dryburgh was his birth-place, as his parents are known to have lived in that village during a part of the year in which he was born. The statement, often made, that he was born on the Bass Rock, may be easily proved by a comparison of dates, and otherwise, to be without foundation. Mr. Erskine's father was the Reverend Henry Erskine, of whom a short account is given below (see Erskine, Ralph), and his mother was Margaret Halcro, a native of Orkney, said by some, though not on very satisfactory evidence, to have been a descendant of James V. of Scotland. At an early age Ebenezer was under deep religious impressions, and having received a preparatory education at a public school in Berwickshire, he entered the university of Edinburgh in November, 1693, with a view to study for the ministry. He took his degree of AM. in June, 1697, and soon after we find him acting as chaplain and tutor in the family of the earl of Rothes. In 1703 Mr. Erskine was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Kirkaldy, and a few months after he was ordained minister of the parish of Portmoak in the county of Kinross, where he laboured with great fidelity and acceptance for twenty-eight years. During this period he was one of the most popular preachers in Scotland, and when the Lord's supper was observed in the church at Portmoak immense crowds came from the adjoining parishes, and even from distant parts of the country. Various attempts were made to have Mr. Erskine removed to a more important sphere, but it was not till 1731 that he left Portmoak, when he was translated to Stirling, where, in what was called the West church, he preached with much ability and success till the year 1740, when his connection with the established church of Scotland was terminated in consequence of an act passed in 1732 which Mr. Erskine and some others looked on as intended and fitted to encourage and increase what they considered errors of discipline and doctrine. Being prevented from recording his opposition to this act in the minutes of the assembly, he denounced it and some other decisions in his public ministrations; and in particular he embraced the opportunity, when he was called to preach at the opening of the synod of Perth and Stirling, to speak in strong terms of the "great defections." His conduct was deemed so offensive that he was censured, and after much angry discussion in the various church courts, he, along with seven other ministers, was deposed. Their deposition took place in May, 1740, but during several years previously they had been virtually in a state of secession. Being elected from the West church, those of Mr. Erskine's congregation who adhered to him built another place of worship, and here he ministered to them till his death, which happened on June 2, 1754. When the controversy arose in the Secession Church regarding the "Burgess Oath," Mr. Erskine was among the number of those who did not regard the taking of the oath as sinful, and when the division among the seceders on this point took place, he was made professor of theology to that section to which he adhered. He was a man of ardent religious feeling and active benevolence, and he presented a rare union of candour and moderation with undaunted courage and true public spirit. His manner of preaching was impressive and dignified, and competent judges speak of his pulpit exhibitions as characterized by great majesty and power. The Secession Church of which Ebenezer Erskine was the founder, comprises more than five hundred congregations, and has contributed largely during the period of its existence to the intelligence, freedom, and piety, of the people of Scotland.—J. B. J.
ERSKINE, Sir John, of Dun, one of the most zealous supporters of the Reformation in Scotland, was born about the year 1508. He was descended from a very old family, which afterwards obtained the earldom of Mar. After receiving his education at the university of Aberdeen, he spent some time on the continent, and, on his return in 1534, brought with him a Frenchman who was acquainted with Greek, and established him in Montrose as a teacher of that language, which had been hitherto almost unknown in Scotland. At an early period John Erskine embraced the protestant faith; and his house at Dun became a place of resort for John Knox and the other preachers of the Reformation. Erskine was one of the few influential laymen who signed the first covenant in 1557. In the following year he was one of the commissioners sent to France, on the occasion of the marriage of Queen Mary to the dauphin. In 1560 Erskine was appointed by the estates superintendent of Angus and Mearns—an office somewhat resembling that of a bishop, and was installed by Knox in 1562. He was present at the memorable interview between Mary and the stern reformer, and tried to soothe the feelings of the indignant princess. Mary spoke of him with great respect as "a mild and sweet-natured man, with true honesty and uprightness." Erskine was five times elected moderator of the general assembly. He took part in compiling the Second Book of Discipline, and wrote two letters to the Regent Mar respecting the rights of the church, which are highly commended by the learned Dr. M'Crie. Sir John Erskine died at an advanced age in 1591. In the words of Archbishop Spottiswoode—"He was a man famous for the services performed to his prince and country, and worthy to be remembered for his travails in the church—a baron he was of good rank, true, learned, liberal, and of singular courage."—J. T.
ERSKINE, John, Professor of Scots law in the university of Edinburgh, was born in 1695. His father, Colonel John Erskine, was a brother of Henry Erskine, third Lord Cardross. In the year 1719 Mr. Erskine was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates, and practised at the bar for several years without gaining much reputation as a lawyer, except among his professional brethren, who showed their knowledge and appreciation of his legal acquirements by procuring his appointment, in 1737, to the chair of Scots law in Edinburgh university. The zeal with which Mr. Erskine discharged his academic duties, and the rapid increase in the number of students attending the class, soon evinced his fitness for the situation. In the year 1754 he published his "Principles of the Law of Scotland"—a work which, though originally designed as a textbook for his students, has gone through many editions, and is highly valued by the legal profession for its accuracy and conciseness. Mr. Erskine resigned his professorship in 1765, after having taught the Scots law class with much ability for twenty-eight years, and devoted the remainder of his life to the preparation of his great work, "The Institutes of the Law of Scotland." This work was not published till after the death of the author, which took place at Cardross on the 1st of March, 1768. Though not entirely free from the defects which usually mark posthumous publications, it has been, and is, a book of the highest authority in Scots law, being often quoted in the courts, and forming the groundwork of many subordinate treatises that have been written since. Some portions of the work have been rendered incomplete by the great increase of commerce and manufactures; but, on the feudal tenures of Scotland and kindred topics, it is likely to be long held in the highest esteem for the extent and accuracy of its information.—J. B. J.
ERSKINE, John, D.D., the eldest son of the author of the "Institutes of the Law of Scotland," was born on the 2nd of
