General James St Clair-Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn, (6 February 1762 – 18 January 1837) was a British Army officer and politician who served as Lord President of the Council from 1834 to 1835.
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Background and education
Erskine was the son of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Erskine, 5th Baronet, and Janet, daughter of Peter Wedderburn (a Lord of Session under the judicial title of Lord Chesterhall) and sister of Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Earl of Rosslyn. Lord Rosslyn's earldom had been created with special remainder to his nephew, Erskine. Erskine succeeded as sixth baronet in 1765, at the age of three, on the death of his father. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and Eton, and was commissioned in the 21st Light Dragoons in 1778.
Military career
Erskine was assistant Adjutant-General in Ireland in 1782. In 1793, he became Adjutant-General, in which capacity he served at the Siege of Toulon and Corsica. In 1795, he was promoted to colonel and appointed Aide-de-Camp to King George III. He became a major-general in 1798, lieutenant-general in 1805, and general in 1814. In 1806, he was a member of the special mission to Lisbon, which resulted in Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) being sent to the Peninsular. He also saw action in Denmark
As a result of the Slave Compensation Act 1837, Erskine received a £3,626 payment from the British government, as he was a trustee for the Lower Walrond and Upper Walrond slave plantations in Antigua owned by his son-in-law Bethell Walrond.
Political career
Erskine was a member of the House of Commons for the English pocket boroughs of Castle Rising between 1782 and 1784 and Morpeth between 1784 and 1796. Initially a Whig, an adherent of Edmund Burke and an active supporter of Charles James Fox against William Pitt the Younger in the debates over the East India Company, he was one of the managers of the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. In 1789, on inheriting the Rosslyn and Dysart estates from his cousin James Paterson St Clair, he adopted the name St Clair before his own surname. In 1796, he was elected for the Dysart Burghs in Fife, a constituency traditionally under the St Clair influence.
In January 1805, Erksine succeeded his uncle as Earl of Rosslyn, being by this time considered a Tory. On 5 February 1807, during a debate in the House of Lords over the proposed Slave Trade Act 1807, Rosslyn spoke in support of the act and claimed that abolishing the slave trade would improve the treatment of slaves in British colonies. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars he continued to sit in the House of Lords. Rosslyn was a member of the cabinet as Lord Privy Seal from 1829 to 1830 under the Duke of Wellington's and Lord President of the Council under Sir Robert Peel from 1834 to 1835. In 1829, he was sworn of the Privy Council.
Family
Lord Rosslyn married Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. Edward Bouverie, in 1790. She died in August 1810. Rosslyn remained a widower until his death in January 1837, aged 74. He was succeeded by his son, James.