Thomas Erskine, 1st Earl of Kellie (1566 – 12 June 1639) was a Scottish peer.
Biography Thomas Erskine was the eldest surviving son of Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar and Margaret Home, a daughter of George Home, 4th Lord Home and Mariotta Haliburton.
Thomas was a school classmate and lifelong personal friend of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England).Amy Juhala, 'For the King Favours Them Very Strangely', in Miles Kerr-Peterson and Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power (Routledge: Abingdon, 2017), p. 161. He was a server at the king's table, a "sewar".Register of the Privy Seal, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 461 no. 2631: Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1581–1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 560: Amy Juhala, 'For the King Favours Them Very Strangely', in Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power (Routledge: Abingdon, 2017), p. 171. In 1585 he was made a Gentleman of His Majesty's Bedchamber.
James VI married Anne of Denmark by proxy in 1589 and while waiting for his bride to come to Scotland, wrote a series of poems in Scots now known as the Amatoria. Some manuscript copies include Erskine's name as "Sr Thomas Areskine of Gogar". It has been suggested that Erskine collaborated with the king in writing the poems, or was involving in circulating them.Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland: Manuscript Production and Transmission (Oxford, 2016), pp. 60-1: Jane Rickard, Authorship and Authority in the writings of James VI and I (Manchester, 2007), pp. 56-60: Sarah Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry at the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Basingstoke, 2002), pp. 77-104: Curtis Perry, 'Royal authorship and problems of manuscript attribution in the poems of King James', Notes and Queries 46, 2 (June 1999), pp. 243-246.
In November 1592 Erskine was identified with the friends of Duke of Lennox, Sir George Home, Colonel William Stewart, the Laird of Dunipace, and James Sandilands, as a supporter of the king's former favourite James Stewart, Earl of Arran, working for his rehabilitation to the disadvantage of the Chancellor, John Maitland and the Hamilton family. The English diplomat Robert Bowes called this group the "four young and counselling courtiers."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 819, 821.
In January 1593 James VI set a tax anticipating the expenses of the birth and baptism of Prince Henry and appointed Erskine Collector General of this tax.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 116, 131–2. At the tournament during the baptism festivities, Erskine performed in a team with the King, dressed as Knights of Malta.Michael Bath, Emblems in Scotland: Motifs and Meanings (Brill, Leiden, 2018), pp. 97–101.
James VI gave his courtiers gifts of jewelry at New Year. In January 1596 Erskine received a "tablet" or locket set with rubies and diamonds and a gold ring set with a table diamond.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's 'English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 85. Erskine had his own chamber in the royal lodgings at Holyrood Palace, and 800 door nails were bought to fix the panelling in September 1599, and the roof was fixed in October.Henry Paton, Accounts of the Masters of Work, 1 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1957), pp. 316, 318.
He was with the king on the occasion of the Gowrie Conspiracy in 1600, when James rode from Falkland Palace to the house of the Ruthven brothers in Perth, where he was supposedly to be kidnapped or assassinated. Erskine was awarded a third of the land confiscated from the Ruthvens and given the title Lord Erskine of Dirletoun in 1604. He was made a Privy Councilor in 1601 and accompanied the Duke of Lennox on a diplomatic visit to France.
James VI maintained a "secret correspondence" with some of Queen Elizabeth's courtiers, hoping thereby to facilitate his succession to the throne of England. A letter to Sir Robert Cecil was sealed with Erskine's heraldry, and his initials as "T. A" for Thomas Areskine.John Bruce, Correspondence of King James VI of Scotland with Sir Robert Cecil and others in England (London, 1858), p. 3.
At court in England Thomas Erskine travelled with James to England when James ascended the English throne in 1603. Lady Anne Clifford described a visit to the king at Theobalds in May 1603, noting that the fashion of the court had changed, "we were all lowzy by sittinge in Sir Thomas Erskin's chamber."John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 111: Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's autobiographical writing, 1590–1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 17: Maria Hayward, Stuart Style (Yale, 2020), p. 191. The French ambassador the Marquis de Rosny identified Erskine as an influential courtier, and gave him a hatbadge or enseigne in the form of a gold heart set with diamonds.Maximilien de Béthune Sully, Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, vol. 2 (London, 1890), p. 421: Mémoire des sages et royales oeconomies d'Estat, 2 (Amsterdam, 1639), p. 272.
According to the Marquis de Rosny, Erskine was a member of a conspicuous bedchamber faction at court which included the Earl of Mar and Edward Bruce. The Duke of Lennox and his followers formed a separate Scottish group and envied the influence of the bedchamber Scots.Memoires de Duc de Sully, 3 (Paris: Ledoux, 1822), pp. 326–327.
Erskine was made Captain of the Guard (1603–1617), Groom of the Stool in 1604, and created Viscount Fenton (or Fentoun) in 1606. On 10 August 1604, when King James was away from London at the hunt, he sent Erskine from Bletsoe to greet the Spanish ambassador, Juan Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, 5th Duke of Frías, Constable of Castile, and apologise for his absence.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), p. 209: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 16, p. 217.
Erskine wrote frequently to the Earl of Mar in Scotland with political and court news. He described Anne of Denmark's nosebleed at Oatlands in September 1604, which lasted a day, the "first 12 hours in such abundance as you would not believe".HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 86. In June 1612 he described efforts to reduce the costs of the royal households:There is much pain taken to draw his Majesty's estate in a right form; the expense is so great and so much more than the receipt, that his Majesty will be forced to retrench both in his own house, the Queen's, and the Prince his house, and this they go about presently. How it shall please women and young folks as yet I can say any thing.HMC Mar & Kellie, supplement (London, 1930), pp. 40-1 modernised here.
He was at Whitehall Palace on 27 December 1612 when contracts were exchanged for the marriage Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate, and wrote to Mar that "The marriage is appointed to be on Saint Valentine's day and by mere accident".HMC Mar & Kellie, 2 (London, 1930), p. 47.
Erskine acquired Kellie Castle from the 5th Lord Oliphant in 1613 and was given the barony of Kellie. On 23 April 1615 he was made a Knight of the Garter.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 3 (London, 1828), pp. 79, 91. He had lodgings at Theobalds House near London. When the Dutch ambassador Noel Caron came to Theobalds on 16 March 1616, he waited first in Lord Fenton's lodging before seeing King James in the Privy Gallery.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 132.
Fenton had a dispute with his brother, Sir George Erskine of Innerteil. In June 1616, George Erskine sent a letter written in Italian to Anne of Denmark, trying to prevent Fenton obtaining a "tack" of lands at Carnbee, beside Kellie Castle. She and the translator revealed the contents to Fenton.HMC Manuscripts of the Earl of Mar and Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 62. Fenton was made Earl of Kellie in March 1619.
When King James died in March 1625 the Privy Council drafted a proclamation. Kellie reminded them that James had preferred the title "King of Great Britain", and he assured the council that using "King of England and Scotland" would not please the people of Scotland.HMC Manuscripts of the Earl of Mar and Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 226. Charles I made a gift of the silver plate used by his late father in his bedchamber to the Earl of Kellie on 5 April 1625.James Arthur Bennett, "Papers relating to the Royal Jewel House", Archaeologia, 48 (1885), p. 211: HMC 7th Report: Mildmay (London, 1879), p. 594. Kellie was present at the private burial of King James at midnight on 5 May 1625 with Francis Stuart and Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun.Robert Gordon, Genealogy of the Earls of Sutherland (Edinburgh, 1819), pp. 393–394.
The Earl of Kellie died intestate in London in 1639 and was buried at Pittenweem, Fife. cites
Thomas's son Alexander predeceased his father in 1633. He was succeeded by his grandson, Thomas Erskine, 2nd Earl of Kellie.
Family The Earl of Kellie married three or four times. His first marriage, on 30 November 1587 was to Ann Ogilvie, daughter of Sir Gilbert Ogilvie of Powrie and sister of the political intriguer John Ogilvy of Powrie. cites A younger brother, James Erskine, married Marie, a daughter of Adam Erskine, Commendator of Cambuskenneth on 17 May 1594.Scottish Antiquary: or Northern Notes & Queries, 'Old Stirling Register-Marriages', vol.7 no.25 (1892), 38
He is sometimes said to have married secondly in 1604 Elizabeth Pierrepoint, daughter of Sir Henry Pierrepoint, cites
Several sources note his second wife was Elizabeth Norreys, widow of Edward Norreys, following a letter of the Earl of Worcester.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1838), pp. 55, 89Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stuart: The Regime Change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 224. William Fowler, the secretary of Anne of Denmark, composed anagrams of her name.Allison L. Steenson, The Hawthornden Manuscripts of William Fowler (Routledge, 2021), 101.
He married thirdly, or fourthly, the thrice-widowed Dorothy, daughter of Ambrose Smith of Cheapside.
Notes
References
, Endnotes: and volume 9, page 284.
External links Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Kellie, Yale Center for British Art Erskine clan