Erskine, Known as "Bobbing John". Jacobite leader. One of commissioners for union (1705); elected a representative peer of Scotland (1707, 1708, 1710, 1713); privy councillor (1708); English secretary of state for Scotland (1713); dismissed from office on accession of George I (1714); placed himself at head of adherents of James Edward, the Old Pretender (1715), proclaimed James VIII king (Sept. 6); defeated at Sheriffmuir by John Campbell, Duke of Argyll; escaped with Pretender to France; subsequently intrigued against James and dismissed from his court in exile (1725). Attainted (1716), leaving earldom under forfeiture for 108 years.
|Born: 1675||Baptised: |
|Died: Aix-La-Chapelle, , , France May 1732 ||Buried: |