Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Erskine, David Montagu

ERSKINE, David Montagu, Baron, diplomat, b. in England in 1776; d. there, 19 March, 1855. He was the son of Thomas Erskine, lord high chancellor of England, and received his education at Eton and Cambridge. He became a barrister at law in 1802, and in 1806 was returned to parliament for Portsmouth. Soon afterward he was sent to the United States as envoy from Great Britain, and continued as such till 1809. For many years he was minister plenipotentiary to the court of Bavaria, and remained there till his withdrawal from active service in 1843. He succeeded to the peerage in 1823. — His wife,

Frances, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 28 June, 1781; d. in England, 25 March, 1843, was the daughter of Gen. John Cadwalader, of Philadelphia, and married Lord Erskine in 1799. She was the great-granddaughter of Judge William Moore, of Moore's Hall, Pa., whose niece married the lord high chancellor Erskine, and hence Baron David Montagu Erskine and his wife were cousins. Lady Erskine was distinguished for her graces of character as well as of person, and was one of the most remarkable beauties of her time. The portrait of her by Gilbert Stuart is considered one of his masterpieces. It is worthy of note, as a proof of the regard evinced by Lord Erskine for the United States, that his eldest sons, Thomas Americus and John Cadwalader, each of whom succeeded to the title, were named, the former after Thomas Cadwalader, his wife's brother, who became an officer during the war of 1812, and the latter after his father-in-law, who was distinguished as a general in the American army during the Revolutionary war. The descendants of Lady Erskine, and therefore of a Revolutionary general, include the present Duke of Portland and the son of Lord Archibald Campbell, prospective Duke of Argyll, his eldest brother being childless.