His stay in London was possibly facilitated through his contact with Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kellie (1753–1781), who had received lessons from Carl’s father Johann during a tour of the continent.
Thomas Erskine, 1838; Thomas Carlyle, 1841; Sir Frederick Pollock, bart., 1842 and 1847; Charles Babbage, 1845; Dr. William Whewell, 1847; James Spedding, 1860; the Rev. William Hepworth Thompson, master of Trinity, and Robert Browning, 1869; Sir Thomas Watson, bart., M.D., 1870; and the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, 1871.
James's letters were written by Mar, Kinloss, and perhaps Mar's kinsman, Thomas Erskine of Gogar.
James Boswell borrowed five guineas from Erskine on 20 October 1762, and on 26 May 1763 took him on a visit to Lord Eglinton's in London, where the overture the Earl composed for the popular pastiche The Maid of the Mill (at Covent Garden in 1765) became exceptionally popular.
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His health suffered and he visited Spa, Belgium, but while returning was "struck with a paralytic shock" and while stopping for a few days at Brussels was attacked by a "putrid fever" and died at the age of 51.
Coleridge witnessed the trials and was affected to the point that he wrote "To Erskine", the first of the Sonnets on Eminent Characters, about Thomas Erskine's defense of the accused.
Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Edison | Thomas | Thomas Hardy | Thomas Mann | Thomas Aquinas | Clarence Thomas | Thomas Gainsborough | Dylan Thomas | Thomas Pynchon | St. Thomas | Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands | Thomas Carlyle | Thomas the Tank Engine | Thomas Moore | Thomas Cromwell | Thomas Becket | Thomas the Apostle | Thomas Merton | Thomas Tallis | Thomas Paine | Roy Thomas | Thomas Telford | Thomas More | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Ryan Thomas | C. Thomas Howell | Thomas Kean | Thomas Gage | Thomas Eakins |
Another Lord Erskine was Thomas Erskine (d. 1832) (a younger son of Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan), who became Baron Erskine when he was appointed Lord Chancellor.
Thomas Erskine, a member of the Whig party, was a lawyer that served as a defender during the 1794 Treason Trials.
The subject of the poem is Thomas Erskine, a lawyer and member of the Whig party that successfully served in the defense of three political radicals during the 1794 Treason Trials.