William Erskine, 8th Earl of Buchan

William Erskine, 8th Earl of Buchan (* after 1655; † 1695 in Stirling Castle ), was a Scottish nobleman .

Life

His father was James Erskine, 7th Earl of Buchan , his mother was Marjory, a daughter of William Ramsay, 1st Earl of Dalhousie . With the death of his father stepped he inherited his title Earl of Buchan and Lord Auchterhouse .

With a document that was issued by him in 1677 and had will-like properties, he regulated the succession again. What was unusual about it was that some lines of his relatives entitled to inherit were excluded; Even more unusual was the confirmation of this document by the Crown in the following year.

During the revolution of 1688 he actively supported Jacob II . After his fall in 1689 he was at the instigation of Wilhelm III. imprisoned in Stirling Castle, where he died after serving six years in prison.

He was married once. The marriage, entered into on September 4, 1683, with Marjory Foulis, Countess of Morton, widow of William Douglas, 9th Earl of Morton , remained childless; Marjory died in 1689. William's death without a legitimate successor led to legal action. The Fraser of Inverallochy family, into which his eldest sister Margaret had married, claimed title and inheritance for themselves. This dispute was decided by parliament in 1698 on the basis of the old succession regulations against these claims; The winner was David Erskine, 4th Lord Cardross , and great-nephew of James Erskine, 6th Earl of Buchan .

literature

• James Balfour Paul (Ed.): The Lord Lyon King of Arms: The Scots Peerage . tape 2 . Douglas, Edinburgh 1909, Erskine, Earl of Buchan , p. 274 f . ( online at www.archive.org [accessed September 1, 2014]).

Web links

• William Erskine, 8th Earl of Buchan on thepeerage.com , accessed September 14, 2016.
• Buchan, Earl of (S, 1469). www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk, accessed September 1, 2014 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
James Erskine	Earl of Buchan 1664-1695	David Erskine