When he died in 1796, James Erskine, Lord Alva (b. 1722) left a complex estate. One of his homes was Drumsheugh House in the West End of Edinburgh. When his descendants contested the provisions of his will early in the nineteenth century, the Court ordered that an inventory of the contents of the manor house…
David Allan painted Lord Alva and his family in 1780 and the resulting conversation piece, ‘James Erskine, Lord Alva (1722-1796) and His Family‘ is now held by the National Gallery of Scotland. Lord Alva is the small gentleman in black. His wife Jean Stirling is seated next to him and his three surviving children from…
Tales from the Session Papers Continued from Part 1 Phebe Forbes’s former brother-in-law had little sympathy for her plight. David Scot’s ‘Answers’ via advocate Andrew Pringle of 19 December 1755, did not hide his obvious dislike for his sister-in-law. He accused her of gold-digging, not just as his brother’s wife but, since she had remarried,…
Tales from the Session Papers Phebe Forbes felt trapped and frustrated as she considered her options in the 1750s. Married young in 1752, she was a widow in the next year. She did not get along with her brother-in-law, David Scot (or Scott) of Hedderwick, who had control over the house she lived in as…
