Erskine Halcro genealogy

blindly accepted as true in all subsequent notices, including the Biography
of Henry Erskine, by Donald Fraser, D.D., of Kennoway.
The fact is, we have it in Henry Erskine's own writing, that his father's
family consisted of twelve, of whom seven were born between 26th August
1589 and 10th May 1600, having been, doubtless, children of a first
marriage, 1 and the remaining five between 22nd August 1624 and 16th
May 1640, the latter having, no doubt, been the children of Janet Wilson.
Another error has crept, possibly by same means, into most of the
accounts of the family. It is stated that the Shielfield Erskines were
descended from David Erskine, Commendator of Dryburgh, who was a
natural son of Robert, Master of Erskine, son of the fourth Lord Erskine,
who was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, during his father's lifetime,
and left no legitimate issue. An examination of the facts, as arranged in the
subjoined Table I., will show that it is inconsistent with any degree of pro-
bability that this David Erskine could have been the father of Alexander
Erskine, the first Erskine of Shielfield. This mistake has similarly been
blindly copied and repeated without due inquiry by subsequent writers,
including Sir Robert Douglas, in his Peerage of Scotland, and Dr. Donald
Fraser.
In due time young Henry Erskine attended the University of Edinburgh,
where he received the degree of M.A., and was thereafter licensed to preach
as a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, established in 1560. This
ordination probably would be about 1646, when he was twenty-two years
of age.
At this time Charles 1., King of England and Scotland, with his advisers,
was engaged in the vain attempt to thrust the Episcopalian form of church
government and the English liturgy by force on the Scottish people ; and
it appears from Mr. Erskine's family record that he had felt it necessary to
remove to England, where he preached in various places, including Wooler
and Cornhill in Northumberland, until 1662, when Charles n. 's 'Act of
Uniformity ' passed, and when he was obliged to leave Cornhill and return
1 The name of the first wife was Isabella Cairncross. See R.M.S., No. 1177, 21st May
1 601.