James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn

Portrait of James Sinclair-Erskine, later 2nd Earl of Rosslyn (1762-1837), his brother John and his sister Henrietta Maria, painted by Nathaniel (I) Hone.

Erskine was the son of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Erskine, 5th Baronet, and Janet, daughter of Peter Wedderburn (a Lord of Session under the judicial title of Lord Chesterhall) and sister of Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Earl of Rosslyn. Lord Rosslyn's earldom had been created with special remainder to his nephew, Erskine. Erskine succeeded as sixth baronet in 1765, at the age of three, on the death of his father.[1] He was educated at Edinburgh High School and Eton, and was commissioned in the 21st Light Dragoons in 1778.

Erskine was assistant Adjutant-General in Ireland in 1782. In 1793, he became Adjutant-General, in which capacity he served at the Siege of Toulon and Corsica. In 1795, he was promoted to colonel and appointed Aide-de-Camp to King George III. 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 the Duke of Wellington) being sent to the Peninsular. He also saw action in Denmark[2]

Erskine was a member of the House of Commons for the English pocket boroughs of Castle Rising between 1782 and 1784[3] and Morpeth between 1784 and 1796.[4] Initially a Whig, an adherent of Edmund Burke and an active supporter of Charles James Fox against William Pitt the Younger 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. In 1796, he was elected for the Dysart Burghs in Fife,[5] a constituency traditionally under the St Clair influence.

In January 1805, he succeeded his uncle as Earl of Rosslyn according to the special remainder,[1] being by this time considered a Tory, and, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, continued his political career in the House of Lords. He was a member of the cabinet as Lord Privy Seal from 1829 to 1830[6] under the Duke of Wellington's and Lord President of the Council under Sir Robert Peel from 1834 to 1835.[7] In 1829, he was sworn of the Privy Council.[6]

According to the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College London, Rosslyn was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £1.43 billion in 2021[8]) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Rosslyn was associated with "Antigua no. 79 T71/877 claim by Bethell Walrond", he owned 233 slaves in Antigua and received a £3,626 payment at the time (worth £347 thousand in 2021[8]).[9]

Lord Rosslyn married Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. Edward Bouverie, in 1790. She died in August 1810. Rosslyn remained a widower until his death in January 1837, aged 74. He was succeeded by his son, James.[1]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rosslyn, Earls of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 752–753.
• Military service
• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Rosslyn
• "Archival material relating to James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn". UK National Archives.