Basic Biographical Details

Name: John Erskine, 6th or 22nd Earl of Mar
Designation:  
Born: 1675
Died: May 1732
Bio Notes: John Erskine was born in 1675 (baptised on 21 January of that year), the eldest son of the 21st Earl of Mar. He was educated in Edinburgh, probably attending some classes at the University, and Leiden and made the Grand Tour. He inherited the family seat in Alloa on his father’s death in 1689. He then became 22nd or 6th Earl of Mar or Jacobite Duke of Mar. The estate which he inherited was at a low ebb at this point because his grandfather had been a royalist during the civil war and his father had been a Jacobite sympathiser. To turn around the family fortunes he conformed to the current political situation and this enabled him to take his seat on the Scottish Parliament in 1696. He chose the Earl of Queensberry as his patron and quickly worked his way into the Duke’s inner circle. (His marriage in 1703 to Lady Margaret Hay daughter of Thomas Earl of Kinnoull, helped him to become closer to the Earl of Queensberry.) In 1697 he was appointed a member of the Privy Council of Scotland. He subsequently supported the Union and as a result was awarded one of the two Secretary of State for Scotland posts in 1705 and later with the keepership of the Scottish Signet. In 1707 he was appointed a Privy Councillor in England.

Meanwhile Mar had developed long-lasting interest in architecture. Alexander Edwards introduced him to the technicalities of garden design, architecture and drawings in the 1690s. He was one of the Earls who sent Alexander Edward to London and Paris in search of botanical and architectural information. By this stage Edward had been Sir William Bruce’s amanuensis for many years and therefore Erskine may have had a connection to Bruce. In 1712 the Earl of Ranelagh who was an amateur architect himself left Mar the ‘scriptore’ in his closet with mathematical instruments and perspective glasses. Mar was patron to James Gibbs when he held some political sway and in 1709 Gibbs regarded him as ‘very much my friend’. Gibbs left Mar’s son a legacy of £1000, three houses and all his plate.

Over a period of time Mar improved and altered his seat at Alloa and created formal plantations around the house. As early as 1704 he had started producing small designs for his estate including a pigeon house or garden pavilion. Alloa House gained a reputation for its gardens which included large vegetable gardens, orangery, orchards, ornamental parterres and a park of over 2500 acres. He also owned a small house at Twickenham called Copt Hall which he improved and added hanging gardens on the river side.

Mar was reputed to have designed other houses, namely Tullibody and Tillicoultry in Clackmannanshire and Blair Drummond in Perthshire, although in fact Alexander McGill was responsible for the design of Blair Drummond, he may have received advice from Mar. There is no remaining evidence to support the claims of his involvement in Tullibody and Tillicoultry.

Erskine married for a second time in 1714. His new wife was the daughter of the Duke of Kingston who was a Whig supporter. However he accepted office from the Tory government in 1713. In 1715 he was treated with suspicion by the Hanoverians and in reaction to this he put himself in charge of the Jacobite forces in Scotland. However after their defeat at Sheriffmuir, Erskine was exiled, lost his estates and his peerage. The Dukedom conferred on him by the Old Pretender was little consolation. He went to Italy in 1717 and to France in 1719 (via Geneva where he was held under arrest for some time at the behest of the British Government). In 1724 he severed his connection with the Jacobite Court after the Pretender lost confidence in him. He resided in Paris until 1729 but moved to Aix-la-Chapelle on account of bad health and in straightened circumstances. He died there in May 1732.

During his exile there is plenty of evidence of his continuing interest in architecture. In 1716 he wrote to Gibbs from Avignon asking him to take care of his drawings and in 1718 Gibbs was commissioned to send him a case of drawing instruments. The Pretender requisitioned some sheets of drawing paper from him and he was presented with a bound volume of plans of St Peter’s after an audience with the Pope. His passion of architecture was undoubtedly his main distraction during his years in exile: in 1717 he wrote that he was ‘infected with the disease of building and planting’. He kept in touch with architectural developments in Britain through both English and Scottish correspondents. He sent suggestions to Gibbs on his designs which had been sent to Mar for a critique. He supplied a design for a large palace to William Adam’s ‘Vitruvius Scoticus’. A range of individuals of both side of the political scene benefitted from his advice and drawings by Mar survive for a range of projects: Wolterton, Norfolk for Sir Horace Walpole; Rokeby for Sir Thomas Robinson; Bretton park Yorkshire for Sir William Wentworth. He also drew a set of designs for his relations the Erskines of Dun and may have had a hand in the design of the House of Dun. Alexander McGill was identified as the potential builder of the house. Mar writes ‘the copier has done no honour by these Draughts to the Designe but Mr Mc[Gil]l will understand them’.

Mar also conceived of building bridges on the south and north sides of the Old Town of Edinburgh, well in advance of the late 18th century improvements i.e. North Bridge and South Bridge and George Street as the main element of the New Town. He also proposed a navigable canal between the Forth and the Clyde. Most time of all was spent on the improvement of his forfeited estate at Alloa. He produced countless schemes for the design of the landscape with intersecting avenues and also devised an addition to the Parish Church. This incorporated an elaborate family pew and a memorial to himself and his family. This took the form of a black marble obelisk beneath a top-lit dome. The designs contained political allusions and can be understood as ‘an apology… for his political career’ with its double dealing and shifts of allegiance. He also made extravagant schemes for filling in the quadrangles of Wilton, Longleat and Drumlanrig with domed polygonal halls.

He also produced schemes for his friends’ houses abroad – for example a new entrance for Captain de Wilde’s house in Antwerp, a new Palladian country house for the Marquis de Tessé at Chatou, near St Germain and improvements to the house of Lord Falkland at Mézières, near Orléans, in 1726.

Mar’s designs demonstrate a knowledge of French, Italian, English and Scottish architecture. He knew the work of a wide range of architects such as Bramante, Palladio, Le Pautre and Guarini. He based many of his studies on Mansart’s Marly and it was a version of Marly that he sent to William Adam for inclusion in ‘Vitruvius Scoticus’. His designs are generally Baroque in style but some also demonstrate a knowledge of neo-classical architecture. In 1718 he designed a house based on the Maison Carré at Nîmes and correspondence shows that he valued models from classical antiquity for sources of inspiration in preference to the ‘trifling gimcrack insignificant ornaments worthy of nobody but Vanburgh’.

Colvin describes Mar as an ‘amateur architect of some distinction’. He holds a unique place in British architectural history.

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
 Date startedBuilding nameTown, district or villageIslandCity or countyCountryNotes
Item 1 of 2c. 1709House of Nairne  PerthshireScotlandConsulted on design
Item 2 of 21723House of DunDun AngusScotlandProduced design for centre front.

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
 Author(s)DateTitlePartPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 3Colvin, Howard2008A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 London: YUP. 4th edition 
Item 2 of 3Gifford, John2012The Buildings of Scotland: Angus and Dundee Yalep526
Item 3 of 3New DNB New Dictionary of National Biography