Robert Erskine (385)

Thomas Erskine (10 January 1750–17 November 1823) was a lawyer, a member of Parliament, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Erskine was the son of an earl, but not born to great wealth, and as a young man he decided to forego higher education and join the military. He served in both the navy and the army, and showed an early talent for persuasive and controversial writing on issues of injustice in 1772 when he published a pamphlet entitled “Observations on the Prevailing Abuses in the British Army.” He left the military a few years later and pursued a career in the law, studying at Licoln’s Inn and earning an honorary degree from Trinity College in 1778. Erskine’s career as a lawyer was marked by several notable cases of courageous defense, and his elegant, forceful courtroom arguments carried legal implications for years to come. He was influential in establishing legal precedent on the issues of treason, libel, and criminal responsibility. He occasionally defended people at great personal cost: he defended APS Member Thomas Paine, who was accused of treason for publishing Rights of Man, and this case lost Erskine an offer of the prominent position of the attorney general of Wales. Towards the end of his career, he defended Queen Caroline, who had been accused of adultery by her husband, King George IV, before the House of Lords. Erskine served in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and, though his Parliamentary career was less notable than his legal one, he did serve as Lord Chancellor in William Greenville’s unity government, “the Ministry of All the Talents,” from 1806 to 1807. He died in 1823 in Almondell, Scotland. (EB)