Following the death of John Francis Miller Erskine, the Earl of Mar, in June 1866, the search for the next earl got underway under controversial circumstances.
Erskine had died without issue, and this was where the question of who would succeed him to the title arose.
It was Mary, Queen of Scots who conferred the title, or ‘Comitatus’ of Mar and Lordship of Garioch on John Erskine on June 23, 1565, and that all his heirs, essentially the eldest son, would gain the title on the death of their father.
All descents of his became Earls of Mar, except when they were stripped of the title due to their support of the Stuart cause during the Jacobite Uprising, when John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, supported the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, son of James VII.
The title of Earl of Mar was restored to the Erskine family in 1824, 109 years later.
The Earl had also died without having any brothers, or brothers’ issue, but he did have a surviving sister who had a son, the Rev John Francis Erskine Goodeve.
However there also a first cousin Colonel Walter Coningsby Erskine, who was the Earl of Kellie in Fife, and who also had a claim to the title.
The minister assumed the title, however, and the Lord Lyon, King of Arms, registered him into the Lyon Register on October 13, 1866.
Consequently, he became a Scottish peer. On February 14, 1867 he was served ‘as one and the elder of the two nearest and lawful heirs-petitioners in general to the said late John Francis Miller Erskine, Earl of Mar, Lord Garioch, etc, his uncle.’
A short time later, the dispute was brought to the attention of Parliament by Coningsby Erskine during a vote on March 21, 1867. He continued to protest that he was the rightful heir on subsequent occasions, until finally a report was issued on February 25, 1875.
The affair had been referred by the Queen, Victoria, to the House of Lords, who in turn referred it to the Committee For Privileges. It found in the Earl of Kellie’s favour.
The report stated, ‘That it is the opinion of this Committee that the claimant Walter Henry, Earl of Kellie, Viscount Fenton, Lord Erskine and Lord Dirleton in the peerage of Scotland, hath made out his claim.’
The whole issue stemmed from the fact that the title of Earl of Mar had been created long before Queen Mary bestowed it on John Erskine in the 16th century, although that original line had become extinct.
In the end, both were recognised as Earls of Mar.
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