Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/215

Rh greatest incivility, and breaking up the closet in which he kept his papers, established a garrison, which continued there for eight years. Two years afterwards, while he was still in prison, his lady having been delivered of a child, whom she caused to be baptized (without his knowledge), by a non-conforming clergyman, another fine of £3,000 was imposed upon him, being purposely thus severe, in order that he might be retained in prison, through inability to pay it. So meanly revengeful was the feeling of the government, that, when the royal forces were on their march to Both well bridge, in June 1679, they were taken two miles out of their proper line of march, in order that they might quarter upon his lordship's estates of Kirkhill and Uphall, and do them all the mischief possible.

In July 1679, lord Cardross was released, on giving bond for the amount of his fine. He went to court, to give an account of his sufferings, and solicit some redress. But the infamous privy council of Scotland counteracted all his efforts. Finding no hope of further comfort in his own country, and that there was little probability of the British nation contriving to throw off the odious bondage in which it was kept, he resolved to seek refuge and freedom in a distant land. He perhaps acted upon the philosophical maxim, thus laid down by Plato, "If any one shall observe a great company run out into the rain every day, and delight to be wet in it, and if he judges, that it will be to little purpose for him to go and persuade them to come into their houses and avoid the rain, so that all that can be expected from his going to speak to them, will be, that he will be wet with them; would it not be much better for him to keep within doors, and preserve himself, since he cannot correct the folly of others?" Lord Cardross engaged with those who settled on Charlestown Neck, in South Carolina, where he established a plantation. From thence, a few years afterwards, he and his people were driven by the Spaniards, many of the colonists being killed, and almost all their effects destroyed. Dispirited, but not broken by his misfortunes, the Scottish patriot returned to Europe, and took up his abode at the Hague, where many others of his persecuted countrymen now found shelter. Entering into the service of Holland, he accompanied the prince of Orange on his expedition to England, his son David commanding a company in the same army. He was of great service in Scotland, under general Mackay, in promoting the revolution settlement, which at length put an end to the miseries endured for many years by himself, and by his country at large. He was now restored to his estates, sworn a privy counsellor, and honoured with much of the friendship and confidence of king William. His health, however, previously much impaired by his imprisonment, and the fatigue of his American plantation, sunk under his latter exextions, and he died at Edinburgh, May 21st, 1693, in the forty-fourth year of his age. The late venerable earl of Buchan, and his two brothers, Henry and Thomas Erskine, were the great- grandchildren of lord Cardross.

ERSKINE,, an eminent pleader, was the third son of Henry David, tenth earl of Buchan, by Agnes, daughter of Sir James Stewart of Coltness and Goodtrees, Baronet. He was born at Edinburgh, on the 1st of November, 1746, O.S. His fame has been eclipsed by that of his younger and more illustrious brother, Thomas lord Erskine, who rose to the dignity of lord high chancellor of Great Britain; but his name, nevertheless, holds a distinguished place in the annals of the Scottish bar, to which he was called in the year 1768, and of which he was long the brightest ornament.

Mr Erskine's education was begun under the paternal roof. He was afterwards sent, with his two brothers, to the college of St Andrews; whence they were subsequently transferred to the university of Edinburgh, and latterly to