William Erskine

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William Erskine (8 November 1773 - 28 May 1852) was a Scottish orientalist and historian.

The son of David Erskine and his wife Jean Melvin, he was born in Edinburgh. He received a doctorate in law and went to Bombay (now Mumbai) India in 1804 where he was master in equity in the recorder's court of Bombay. He married Maitland Mackintosh, daughter of James Mackintosh by his first wife Katherine Stuart in 1809 in Madras (now Chennai) and they had two daughters, Mary and Frances, the latter of whom married the statistician and civil servant Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer. Erskine wrote principally on mediaeval India, but he also completed John Malcolm's biography of Clive of India after Malcolm's death and translated the memoirs of Zehir-Ed-Din Muhammed Babur, Emperor of Hindustan. He was removed from office in 1823 after being accused of defalcation and for many of his later years resided in Edinburgh. He was Provost of St Andrews, 1836–1869.