James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn

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James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn GCB PC (17621837), known as Sir James Erskine, 6th Baronet, from 1765 until 1789 and as Sir James St Clair-Erskine, 6th Baronet, from 1789 until 1805, was a Scottish soldier, politician, and Acting Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, on behalf of King George IV.

Erskine succeeded to the family baronetcy in 1765 at the age of three. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and Eton College, and was commissioned in the 21st Light Dragoons in 1778. In 1782 he was assistant adjutant-general in Ireland, in 1793 became adjutant-general, in which capacity he served at Toulon and Corsica, and in 1795 was promoted to colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to the King. He became a major-general in 1798, lieutenant general in 1805 and general in 1814. In 1806 he was a member of the special mission to Lisbon which resulted in Sir Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) being sent to the peninsula. He also saw action in Denmark and the Netherlands.

From 1782 until 1805, when he became a peer, Sir James was a member of parliament, sitting at first for English pocket boroughs. Initially a Whig, an adherent of Edmund Burke and an active supporter of Fox against Pitt in the debates over the East India Company, he was one of the managers of the impeachment of Warren Hastings. In 1789, on inheriting the Rosslyn and Dysart estates from his cousin James Paterson St Clair, he adopted the name St Clair before his own surname; and in 1796 was elected for the Dysart Burghs in Fife, a constituency traditionally under the St Clair influence. In January 1805, he succeeded his uncle as Earl of Rosslyn, being by this time considered a Tory, and after the end of the Napoleonic Wars continued his political career in the House of Lords. In the Duke of Wellington's government, he was Lord Privy Seal from 1829 to 1830, and later was Lord President of the Council (18341835).


Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Robert Mackreth
John Chetwynd-Talbot
Member of Parliament for Castle Rising
with Robert Mackreth

1782–1784
Succeeded by
Charles Boone
Walter Sneyd
Preceded by
Peter Delmé
Anthony Morris Storer
Member of Parliament for Morpeth
with Peter Delmé 1784–1789
Francis Gregg 1790–1795
Viscount Morpeth 1795–1796

1795–1796
Succeeded by
Viscount Morpeth
William Huskisson
Preceded by
Charles Hope
Member of Parliament for Dysart Burghs
1796–1801
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Member of Parliament for Dysart Burghs
1801–1805
Succeeded by
Robert Dallas
Political offices
Preceded by
The Lord Ellenborough
Lord Privy Seal
1829–1830
Succeeded by
The Lord Durham
Preceded by
The Marquess of Lansdowne
Lord President of the Council
1834–1835
Succeeded by
The Marquess of Lansdowne
Honorary titles
Preceded by
-
Lord Lieutenant of Fife
1828–1837
Succeeded by
-
Freemasonry offices
Preceded by
William Maule
Acting Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland

1810–1812
Succeeded by
The Viscount Duncan of Camperdown
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Alexander Wedderburn
Earl of Rosslyn
1805–1837
Succeeded by
James Alexander St Clair-Erskine
Baronetage of Nova Scotia
Preceded by
Henry Erskine
Baronet
(of Alva)
1765–1837
Succeeded by
James Alexander St Clair-Erskine

[edit] References

  • This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
  • Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
  • Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
  • Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)

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