Personal data
Mary Erskine
Born 1715   Died 1766  
Mary Webster

Daughter of John Erskine and Euphemia Cochrane. Sister of Euphemia Erskine, the mother of James Boswell. Married (1737) to Alexander Webster. The couple had six sons and one daughter, including James Webster, John Webster and William Webster.

Boswell described her when, on October 27, 1762, he visited the Webster's, as "a woman of great humour, luxuriant and wild, so that she will give a loose to every sally of imagination; she has joined with this a mixture of Presbyterian cant and vulgarity that renders her quite a caricatura."

    Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.