David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan

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David Stewart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (June 12, 1742April 19, 1829) was a notable Scottish eccentric.

He was a son of the 10th Earl and a brother of Henry Erskine and Thomas, Lord Erskine. He studied at St. Andrews University and Edinburgh University. His pertinacity helped in effecting a change in the method of electing Scottish representative peers, and in 1780 he succeeded in founding the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. His correspondents included Horace Walpole, and he produced an Essay on the Lives of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson (1792) and other writings. He died at his residence at Dryburgh (near Dryburgh Abbey, in the Scottish Borders) in April 1829, leaving no legitimate children, and the earldom passed to his nephew Henry.

He also commissioned a cable-stayed bridge over the River Tweed at Dryburgh. He opened this bridge on August 1, 1817 but it collapsed within months. A replacement was built after a redesign, but this too collapsed in 1838. A more permanent bridge did not arrive until 1872, when the suspension system was used instead.

Preceded by
The Earl of Crawford
Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland

1782–1784
Succeeded by
The Earl of Aberdeen
Preceded by
Henry Erskine
Earl of Buchan Succeeded by
Henry Erskine

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