On his Grand Tour of Europe in 1764-1765, Boswell visited and befriended the famous philosophers Jean-Jacques Rosseau and François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), and back in Edinburgh he was a personal friend of David Hume.
John Francis Erskine - 7th Earl of Mar
John Francis Erskine
Born 1741Died 1825
Alias:
7th Earl of Mar
The Horse
Biography:
Son of James and Frances Erskine. Married (1770) to Frances Floyer. Nicknamed the Horse by Boswell and William Temple. He became 7th Earl of Mar in 1824 when that title was restored to the family, after having been lost by his father's uncle John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, due to his role in the Jacobite Rebellion in 1716.1
Life with Boswell:
Boswell and Erskine were classmates in John Stevenson's class in logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh University in 1756-57. They may have met occasionally afterwards, and we know that Boswell visited Erskine's parents during his 1762-63 stay in London. On October 15, 1774, Boswell visited Erskine at his house in Alloa.
Note 1: John, 6th Earl of Mar, was one of the leaders of the Jacobite rebellion in 1715-6, and he proclaimed James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) king of Great Britain on September 6, 1715. When the rebellion collapsed in 1716 he fled with Charles Edward to France and Rome, before he lost favour at the pretender's court. He died in Aachen, Germany, in May 1732.
Add new comment