William Erskine

Who was William Erskine?

William Erskine was a Scottish orientalist and historian.

The son of David Erskine and his wife Jean Melvin, he was born in Edinburgh. He attended the Royal High School, received a doctorate in law from Edinburgh University, and went to Bombay India in 1804 where he was master in equity in the recorder's court of Bombay. He married Maitland Mackintosh, daughter of Sir James Mackintosh by his first wife Katherine Stuart in 1809 in Madras and they had fourteen children, one of whom, Frances, married the statistician and civil servant Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer. Another daughter, Mary, was head nurse in the Naval Hospital at Therapia during the Crimean War, and looked after Florence Nightingale while she recovered from illness. Erskine's sister-in-law, Mary Mackintosh, married the eminent orientalist Claudius James Rich. Erskine wrote principally on mediaeval India, but he also completed John Malcolm's biography of Clive of India after Malcolm's death and translated the Baburnama, the memoirs of Zehir-Ed-Din Muhammed Babur, Emperor of Hindustan. He was removed from office in 1823 after being accused of defalcation and for many of his later years resided in Edinburgh, as well as Pau in South West France. He was Provost of St Andrews, 1836–1869.