Life

Erskine, the natural son of David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan

David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan

David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan , styled Lord Cardross between 1747 and 1767, was a notable Scottish eccentric.-Background and education:...

, was born in 1772. In early life he bore a captain's commission in the 31st foot, and also belonged to the York rangers. On the reduction of the 31st regiment, he was appointed a professor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. The Earl of Munster

George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster

George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster PC , was the eldest natural son of William IV of the United Kingdom and his long-time mistress Dorothy Jordan....

 was there placed under his tuition, as were others of William IV's children, and at their request Erskine received the honour of knighthood, 11 September 1830.

His father died in 1829, and bequeathed to him for life the whole of his unentailed estates, including Dryburgh Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland...

, Berwickshire, which thenceforth became his permanent residence. Erskine, who was F.S.A. Scot., director of the Royal Academy of Edinburgh, and one of the founders of the Scots Military and Naval Academy in that city, died 22 October 1837, aged 65.

On 17 November 1798 he married his cousin, Elizabeth, second daughter of Thomas, lord Erskine, and after her death, 2 August 1800, he married secondly a Miss Ellis.

Works

• Airyformia; or Ghosts of great note, 12mo, Kelso, 1825.
• King James the First of Scotland; a tragedy in five acts (and in verse), 12mo, Kelso, 1827. * Love amongst the Roses: or Guilford in Surrey; a military opera, in three acts (and in prose), 12mo, Kelso, 1827.
• King James the Second of Scotland, an historical drama, in five acts (and in verse), 12mo, Kelso, 1828.
• Mary, Queen of Scots; or Melrose in ancient times … an historical melo-drama (in three acts and in prose), 12mo, Edinburgh, 1829.
• Annals and Antiquities of Dryburgh, and other places on the Tweed, second edition, 12mo, Kelso, 1836.