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Euphemia Erskine Boswell - Lady Auchinleck

Biography


Birth: 1718
Death: 1766 at Auchinleck

Daughter of Lt-Col John Erskine (1660-1737), Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle, and Euphemia Cochrane (1693-1720/1). Married (1738) to Alexander Boswell. Mother of James, John and (Thomas) David Boswell.

Her mother died when she was 2 years old, and her father was almost 60 when she was born. As a result, she was brought up by her grandmother (Mary Bruce (d. 1739), daughter of the 2nd Earl of Kincardine) and her aunt Anne Cochrane (d. 1779), Lady Preston, who was married to 4th Bart of Valleyfield.

According to descriptions by James and Alexander Boswell she was a pious, dutiful and loving women. She also suffered from some degree of hypochondria, as JB wrote in his sketch to Rosseau in 1765.

Also known as

  • Lady Auchinleck
  • Euphemia Boswell

Life with James Boswell

Mentioned in

Euphemia Erskine is mentioned in:

  • Journal of my Jaunt, Harvest 1762
  • London Journal 1762-1763
  • Boswell in Holland 1763-1764
  • Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica, and France 1765-1766

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Did you know?

James Boswell died in 1795 believing he had touched and kissed a cache of Shakespeare's original letters and papers discovered by a Mr. Ireland. His friend, Edmond Malone, publicly exposed the lot as a forgery just a year later.

(C) Thomas Frandzen 2004-2010