David Wemyss, 2nd Earl of Wemyss

Who was David Wemyss, 2nd Earl of Wemyss?

David Wemyss, 2nd Earl of Wemyss was an army officer.

Only son of John Wemyss, 1st Earl of Wemyss and Jean Gray, daughter of Lord Gray.

As Lord Elcho, a title he held between 1633 and 1649, he commanded a regiment of Fife infantry in the Scottish army which reached Newcastle upon Tyne in August 1640. On 1 September 1644, at the head of about 6000 men, he was routed by Montrose at Tippermuir, and in August 1645, as supernumerary commander to Lieutenant-General William Baillie, again suffered defeat by Montrose's forces at Kilsyth.

He married three times:

Anna, daughter of Robert Balfour, 2nd Lord Balfour of Burleigh;

Helenor, daughter of John Fleming, 2nd Earl of Wigtown;

Margaret, daughter of John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes, and widow of Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Buccleuch; one daughter, Margaret, the only child to outlive her father.

He died in 1679 at Wemyss Castle in Fife, whose estate he had done much to develop.