Wedderburn book > History

406 THE WEDDERBURN BOOK.
Part iv. recently recovered from an attack of gout, and attended on Jan. 1 the Queen's reception
Chap. in. a j Frogmore. On the following day he rode out to visit a friend, but after returning
home to dinner, was seized with a fit of apoplexy, and died at midnight (Kay's Portraits). 1
His remains were removed to his house in London, and were buried in St. Paul's
Cathedral beneath a flat stone, bearing his arms and motto, " Illreso lumine solem," and
the following inscription, which was " fast becoming illegible " when Campbell wrote: —
Alexander Wedderburn,
Earl of Rossltn,
Baron Loughborough.
Born 13th February 1733.
Died 2nd January 1805.
He was twice married,
(i.) On 31 Dec. 1767, at Battley, co. York, to Betty Anne Dawson, sole child and
heiress of John Dawson of Morley, co. York (London Mag., 7 Jan, 1768), but by her, who
died 15 Feb. 1781 and was buried at Morley, had no issue.
(ii.) On 12 Sept. 1782 to the Hon. Charlotte Courtenay, fifth daughter of
William, first Viscount Courtenay of Powderham, co. Devon, and by her (who was
born at Powderham 21 Jan. 1751, and, surviving the Earl, died in May 1826), had issue
one son, 2 who was born 2 Oct. 1793 and died in the following year.
His honours thus devolved under the special remainders of the patents of 1795 and
1801 on the eldest son of his sister,
Janet Wedderburn, who was born in 1736, and died in 1797. 3 She married,
25 April 1761 (Scots' Mag., xxiii., p. 221-22), Lieut.-Gen. Sir Henry Erskine of Alva, Bart.,
some time Colonel of the 1st Foot Regiment (Royal Scots) and M.P. for Anstruther, and
by him (d. 9 Aug. 1765) had issue two sons and a daughter, Henrietta Maria, who died
unm. in 1820."
1 There are obituary notices of the Earl in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1805, p. 88, and in the European
Magazine, 1805, p. 82. An engraving of him may also be found in the latter magazine for Sept. 1798.
3 I have not ascertained his name nor the place or date of his baptism.
3 She is mentioned in the Autobiography of Alexander Carlyle, p. 406, where, however, her Christian name
is wrongly given as Fanny. Her portrait was painted by Allan Kamsay, and reproduced in mezzotint
by Johnson.
4 Of the sons, the younger, John Erskine, died in 1817, having married, 1802, Mary Mordaunt, daughter
of Sir John Mordaunt, Bart., and by her (d. 17 July 1821) had issue an only child, Mary Erskine,
who, in 1856, married as his second wife Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., and d. s.p. in 1892. The
elder son, James Erskine, born in 1762, succeeded his father in his baronetcy in 1765. He took the
additional name of St. Clair before that of Erskine by royal licence dated 9 June 1789, and after
succeeding his maternal uncle as second Earl of Rosslyu and Baron Loughborough, obtained a further
royal licence, 14 Feb. 1S05, to quarter the arms of Wedderburn with his own. He died 17 Jan.
1837, having married in 1790 Henrietta-Elizabeth Bouverie, daughter of the Hon. Edward Bouverie
(see Burke's Peerage, s. Badnor), by whom (b. 1771, d. 1810) he had issue two sons and a daughter, who
m. 1829, Bethell Walrond (d. 1876) of Dulford House, Devon, and died, leaving issue, in 1880 (see
Burke's Landed Gentry). Of the sons, the younger, Henry Francis St. Clair Erskine, b. 1804, d. unm. in
1829, while the elder (b. 1802, d. 1866) succeeded as third Earl of Rosslyn. He married in 1826
Francis Wemyss, daughter of Lieut.-Gen. Wemyss of Wemyss, and by her (d. 1858) had issue,
besides a son (James Wedderburn, b. 1830, d. unm. 1851), and a daughter, Harriet- Elizabeth (whom.
1865 Count Munster, German Ambassador to the Court of S. James, and d. 1867, having had issue)
a son and successor, Robert Francis, fourth Earl (b. 1832, d. 1890), who m. 1866 Blanche Adeliza
Maynard, daughter of Henry FitzRoy and widow of the Hon. Charles Henry Maynard, only son of
Viscount Maynard, by whom (living 1898) he left issue two sons and three daughters, viz : 1, James
Francis Henry, fifth Earl of Rosslyn (b. 1869, m. 1890 Violet Alice Vyner, daughter of Robert Charles
de Grey Vyner, of Gautby Hall, co. Lincoln, and has issue Francis Edward Scudamore, Lord Lough-
borough, b. 1892 ; and Rosabelle Millicent). 2, Alexander FitzRoy St. Clair Erskine, b. 1870;
Millicent Fanny, b. 1867, m. 1884 the 4th Duke of Sutherland ; Sybil Mary, b. 1871, m. 1892 the
13th Earl of Westmorland ; and Angela Selina Bianca, b. 1876, m. 1896 James Stuart (see Burke's
Baronetage, s. Forbes of Newe) Forbes.