James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn

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James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn GCB PC (1762 – 1837), 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 (1834–1835).

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)