Mar, John Erskine, 6th Earl of
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- Mar, John Erskine, 6th Earl of
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(1675 - 1732), statesman and Jacobite, o. s. of 5th E. of Mar [S]; sty. Ld. Erskine - 1689 when suc. fa. as 6th E.; KT 1706; c.-in-c. Jacobite forces 1715; attainted 1716; cr. D. of Mar [J] 1715; m. 1 1703 Ldy. Margaret Hay (d. 1707) dau. of 7th E. of Kinnoull, 2 1714 Ldy. Frances Pierrepont (d. 1761), dau. of 1st D. of Kingston (and sis. of Ldy. Mary Wortley Montagu); lived in France from 1719; d. Aix-la-Chapelle.
1717 - 19 Padua, Venice (7 - 13 Nov. 1717), Bologna (17 Nov.), Urbino (by 25 Nov. 1717 - 28 Mar. 1718), Rome (Mar. - May), Urbino (May - Jul. 1718), Rome, Milan (Feb. - Mar. 1719), Rome ( - 9 Apr.) [Geneva, May 1719 - Dec. 1720]
As Secretary of State for Scotland, Mar had proclaimed King George who, however, had received him with indifference. Mar changed his allegiance and within a year was leading the Jacobite forces at Braemar and Sheriffmuir, initially without the Pretender's authorisation. 'Bobbing John' frequently changed his opinions, and his vacillation, together with his arrogance and military incompetence, contributed to the Jacobite failure.1
In April 1716 he fled from Scotland with the Pretender to Avignon. He was now his Secretary of State (succeeding Bolingbroke), but he nevertheless left his master at the Italian frontier in February 1717, to visit his wife in Flanders and have secret talks with the British government in Paris. In November 1717 he rejoined the Pretender in Urbino, coming through Padua to Venice, with which he was 'much delighted' (5:341).2 He had told the English Resident, Cunningham, that he had come 'for a few days to see the place and hear the music, and not to disturb your government at home or meddle with any kind of politics' (5:182). He left Venice on 13 November, was in Bologna on 17 November and he had reached Urbino by 25 November (5:212, 233).
It was to be a dull winter and the weather was awful. 'I could not believe that there was ever such winters in any place of this country and will think the better of our own island afterwards' (5:464). There was abundant time to write letters complaining of boredom: 'one day being as like the other as two eggs and these eaten without either pepper or salt' (5:487). 'I do not wonder the people of this country give themselves to music, architecture, etc., since they are in a manner out of communication with the world' (5:314). Music was their principle amusement 'and some pretty good voices and excellent instruments we have, who perform sometimes in my rooms, where our Master looks in ... All this amusement though does not make this place and idle life by any means agreeable, For God's sake let us out of it soon and something to do' (5:341, 368). Apart from music there was 'shuttlecocks or cleckings to give us some exercise' (5:382). In January 1718 he told Colonel John Stewart at Rome that he envied him 'the buildings you see and the music you hear', at the same time enclosing some drawings he had made of a little house,3 with the request that a good architect should draw proper elevations from them (5:382); but the Roman architect 'made a goose pie of my plan', wrote Mar who added a comment on the 'degeneracy of the present Romans' (6:162).
On 28 March Mar left Urbino to spend some five weeks in Rome (6:204). Frascati in April 'by its natural as well as artificial beauties' put him in mind of Richmond (6:374). He met the Pope with whom he conversed in 'the best ill French I could muster up', but apparently enjoyed more the 'noble idea of the greatness of the Romans' offered by the Baths of Diocletian and the pictures in Don Olivio's collection (6:318, 375). His portrait in miniature was painted in June by G.F. Ramelli (Abbot of the Canons Regular of the Lateran), who had heard from Trevisani that such a portrait would be acceptable (6:517). Trevisani was to paint Lady Mar and her daughter in Rome, probably in 1719 (priv. coll.). John Alexander looked after some commissions from Mar, including works by one Caputi, who in June 1718 had 'ended one of the Ios and the other is well advanced', see John Alexander. Mar returned to Urbino in May.
Late in 1718 Mar's wife and daughter arrived in Italy, having survived a hazardous journey from England.4 But within three months of their arrival Mar left Rome, ostensibly for Genoa, though the plan was that he should join the Pretender in Spain for another armed attempt on England. But Mar had already drafted his letter of resignation and he never saw the Pretender again. He was now playing a double game, maintaining his Jacobite ties while trying to open up communication with the British government. He travelled to Genoa with Lord Perth, but chose to enter Milanese territory (controlled by George I's ally, the Emperor) and they were duly interned in Milan. Released in March, Mar returned to Rome, quarrelled violently with James Murray (later the Jacobite Earl of Dunbar) and left on 9 April 1719 for Geneva, sending his seals of office to the Pretender in Spain. He left his wife and daughter in Rome.
Mar was again detained by the British government in Geneva, where his wife and daughter joined him there in December 1720. Lady Mar had not been well treated by John Murray while the Pretender was in Spain, but when she left Rome in October the Pretender wrote to her that 'the loss of yr good company att Rome this winter will be a mortification to us'.5
1. See E. Gregg in Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism, 179 - 88. 2. Mar's numerous letters from Italy in HMC Stuart, 5: and 6: (refs. cited in brackets). 3. For Mar as architect, see T. Friedman, Architectural History, 29[1986]:102ff. 4. See Tayler 1939, 49 - 55. 5. Ibid., 58.