ERSKINE, Joux (of Carnock, and after wards f ('ardross) (1695-176s). An eminent Scottish jurist and professor of Scots law in the niversity of Edinburgh. lie was the son of the Erskine of Carnock, third son of Lord cardross, whose have now succeeded to the earldom of Buelmn. ;John Erskine, the father, was it man of intpo tall•e in his day, not only t u fleColilit of the family to which he ‘1:11iC11 even than hail been prolific in historieal eharaeters, but in consequence of his per anal qualities and the positions which he 1,1d. been forced to quit Scotland from hi attach:m.10 ill the Presbyterian religion, he tired to Holland, and became an °dicer in the of the Prince of t )riulge. Al the Revolu tion he aceompanied William to England, and as 11 r. ward for his •-ervin•s was appointed Lieu Pt of Stirling Casth• and lieutenant I I. III .t 1-4-gin pot of foot. .lobo Erskine, the r, b, in 11;95, became a member of the 1 a.. Its f 1.1Noeates in 1719, hut did not sueveed tu • it of the law. on ilic death of i:61 17:17, El Line was nominated t I I In! 11 th, t hair of seals law, all office Oa 1 is n. f t Inch be performed with great r I it t 1•1 1754 hi' • • i II 1,71n the Imre h• t • e commentaries of Blackstone in England and America, became the favorite text-book for many successive genera tions of law students. On his retirement from
the professorship in 1765, Erskine occupied him self in preparing his more important work, The Institutes of the Laws of Scotland, but it was not published till 1773, five years after his death. Erskine was twice married—first to Aliss Mel ville, of the noble family of Leven and Melville, by whom he left the afterwards celebrated clergy man, John Erskine: and, second, to Ann, second daughter of Stirling of Keir, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. As a legal writer Erskine is inferior to none of the Scottish jurists, with the single exception of Lord Stair, who hail the benefit of the more learned and wider judicial training of earlier lawyers who were educated in a Continental school. But of all those depart ments which constitute the law of Scotland, as developed by the usages and forms of society in the country itself, there is at the present day no clearer, sounder, or more trustworthy expos itor than Erskine.