Erskine, JOHN, Scottish jurist, was born in 1695, the son of the Hon. Colonel Erskine of
Carnock, Fife. He was called to the bar in 1719, but did better as a lecturer than a practitioner, having in 1737 been appointed to the chair of Scots Law in Edinburgh University. He resigned it in 1763, and died on 1st March 1768 at Cardross, near the Lake of Menteith, which estate he had purchased in 1746. His two works are still held in deserved repute—Principles of the Law of Scotland (1754; 17th ed. 1886), and the more important Institutes of the Law of Scotland (1773; 9th ed. 1871). As a legal writer, indeed, he is second only to Stair, the sterling merits both of the Principles and of the Institutes being their plainness and sound common sense.