Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine

Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine ( born January 21, 1755 in Edinburgh, † November 1, 1823 at Almondell, Mid Calder parish, Linlithgowshire ) was a Scottish politician.

Lord Thomas Erskine, one of the best Solicitors of England, the third son of the Scottish Earl Buchan, 1768 went as midshipman to India, came then as a cadet in an infantry regiment, studied from 1775 's rights, was recorded in 1778 under the Barristers and was elected to the most important political processes, which ushered in the government at the time of the persecuted to legal aid. Among other things he also defended Lord George Gordon

The office of Procurator General of the Prince of Wales in 1792, he lost by his defense of Thomas Paine, the author of the famous essay Rights of man. Since 1783 Member of Parliament since 1806 Peer of Scotland and during the short administration William Wyndham Grenville, Lord Chancellor, he took part in the discussion on the rights of the jury in part, spoke in 1808 for the Irish Catholics, submitted in 1814 a petition signed by 80 clergy to abolition of the slave trade a and was continually to the liberal opposition. He died November 17, 1823 in Almondell in Edinburgh.

His letters A view of the Causes and consequences of the present war with France ( London 1797), in which he advocated the principles of the French Revolution, witnessed 48 runs. His speeches collected published London 1803, 6 vols; . New edition of Lord Brougham in 1847 (4 vols ) and selection with biography of Walford, 1880 He also wrote an anonymous political novel: Armata (London 1817, 2 vols ), a Imitiaton of Gulliver's Travels.