John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar
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John Erskine, 22nd (or 6th or 11th) Earl of Mar (1675 - May, 1732), Scottish Jacobite, was the eldest son of Charles, the 5th earl (1650-1689), from whom he inherited estates that were heavily loaded with debt. Owing to the complex history of the earldom, Erskine may be reckoned 22nd, 11th or 6th in the line.
He was associated with a party favourable to the government, was one of the commissioners for the Union, and was made a Scottish secretary of state; becoming, after the Union of 1707, a representative peer for Scotland, keeper of the signet and a privy councillor. In 1713 Mar was made an English Secretary of State by the Tories, but he seems to have been equally ready to side with the Whigs and, in 1714, he assured the new king, George I, of his loyalty. However, like the other Tories, he was deprived of his office, and in August 1715 he went in disguise to Scotland and placed himself at the head of the adherents of James Edward, the Old Pretender.
Meeting many Highland chieftains at Aboyne, he avowed an earnest desire for the independence of Scotland and, at Braemar on September 6, 1715, he proclaimed "James VIII" king of Scotland, England, France and Ireland. Gradually the forces under his command were augmented, but as a general he was a complete failure. Precious time was wasted at Perth, a feigned attack on Stirling was resultless, and he could give little assistance to the English Jacobites. At Sheriffmuir, where a battle was fought in November 1715, Mar's forces largely outnumbered those of his opponent, John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll; but no bravery could atone for the signal incompetence displayed by the Earl, and the fight was virtually a decisive defeat for the Jacobites.
Mar then met James Edward at Fetteresso; the cause however was lost, and the prince and the earl fled to France. Mar sought to interest foreign powers in the cause of the Stuarts; but in the course of time he became thoroughly distrusted by the Jacobites. In 1721 he accepted a pension of £3500 a year from George I, and in the following year his name was freely mentioned in connection with the trial of Bishop Atterbury, whom it was asserted that Mar had betrayed. This charge may perhaps be summarized as not proven. At the best his conduct was highly imprudent, and in 1724 he left the Pretender's service. His later years were spent in Paris and at Aix-la-Chapelle, where he died.
Mar, who was known as "Bobbing John", married for his second wife, Frances (d. 1761), daughter of the 1st Duke of Kingston, and was thus a brother-in-law of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He had been attainted in 1716, and his only son, Thomas, Lord Erskine, died childless in March 1766.
Mar's brother James Erskine was a noted judge.
The progressive rock band Genesis wrote a song, "Eleventh Earl of Mar" (found on their Wind & Wuthering album), about Mar.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
