Erskine Halcro genealogy

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General Register House, Edinburgh, through the courtesy of the late Lyon
King-at-Arms, that the arms of Balgownie were registered there about the
year 1680, and those of Shielfield as a branch of Balgownie about 1700.
These heraldic facts would not, probably, be sufficient in themselves to
establish the connection of the Shielfield family with that of Balgownie ; but
when taken in connection with all other facts established, they form a power-
ful factor in the proof of the connection between the two families.
It may be worth while to add that in Nisbet's Heraldry, and elsewhere,
the crest of the Mar family is 'A Right Hand proper holding a dagger
(skeen) in Pale Argent hilted and pommelled Or, motto " Je pense plus x ';' while
the crest of the Shielfield family is a Dexter Arm from the elbow proper,
a Cross Crosslet Or pointed downwards, and the motto ' Think WelV —
showing the two families to be nearly connected, so far as heraldry can show.
On 31st March 1541, Alexander Erskine (3/9) was witness to a charter — see
R M.S., No. 2321 — granted by his uncle, John, fourth Lord Erskine. His
cousin Thomas Erskine, then Commendator of Dryburgh, was a witness to
same deed; and on 29th January 1557, Alexander Erskine was witness to a
charter granted by his cousin John, fifth Lord Erskine, at Stirling, — see
R.M.S., No. 1 149.
Balgony, or Balgownie, is in Perthshire, in the immediate neighbourhood
of Culross on the Forth.
The late Dr. Alexander Laing of Newburgh allowed me to take a copy of
a Genealogical Table of the Balgownie Erskines, in his possession, to which
I am indebted for several of the names and dates in the Table.
Nos. 3/9, 3/10, 4/5, 5/2. — The relationship among these four persons and
of Walter Haliburton, formerly of Shielfield, father of Elizabeth, No. 3/10,
is at once clearly established by an entry, of date 14th March 1585, in
R.M.S., being No. 796 therein.
In the Liber Sancte Marie de Dryburgh, at page 317, there is a deed copied
from an original, which Mr. Spottiswood says he saw in the possession of
Lord Polwarth, which deed bears that, of date ' 10 June 1600, Ralph Erskine
in Dryburgh was son of the late Alexander Erskine in Dryburgh, and had a
son John Erskine, his apparent heir, then alive.'