Alexander Elphinstone, 4th Lord Elphinstone

Alexander Elphinstone, 4th Lord Elphinstone (1552-1638), was a Scottish courtier, landowner, and Lord Treasurer.

Alexander Elphinstone was the son of Robert Elphinstone, 3rd Lord Elphinstone (1530-1602) and Margaret Drummond, daughter of Sir John Drummond of Innerpeffray and Margaret Stewart, daughter of James IV of Scotland.

The Elphinstone lands were to the south and east of Stirling centred on the settlement of Elphinstone and Dunmore near the Forth. His neighbours included the Drummonds of Carnock and Bannockburn and the Bruces of Airth. His family were longstanding rivals of the Erskine Earls of Mar.

Until his father's death in 1602, he was known as "Alexander, Master of Elphinstone". He joined the court of

In May 1585 Margaret Haldane, the wife of David Erskine, Commendator of Dryburgh, was held at Kildrummy Castle in the custody of the Master of Elphinstone. Francis Walsingham, at the instance of her brother, wrote to Edward Wotton, an English diplomat in Edinburgh, to ask that she be moved to more congenial location.^[2]

In March 1592 he was involved in the aftermath of the murder of

In 1608 he obtained a royal licence to export coal.[10]

Alexander Elphinstone died in 1638.

Family

Alexander Elphinstone married Jean Livingston (d. 1621), daughter of

• St Andrews University,^[11]
  who was known as the "Master of Elphinstone" until his father's death in 1638.
• Agnes Elphinstone (d. 1617) who married
  Scots. James VI had given a similar, but slightly less costly, ensemble to Agnes Boyd, the bride of George Elphinstone of Blythswood in August 1600.^[13] During the festivities in the Cunyiehous, James VI lost £82 playing at cards.^[14]
• Michael Elphinstone of Quarrel and East Skaithmure (1593-1640), who married Mary Bruce, daughter of Robert Bruce of Kinnaird. He died at Durham.^[15]
• Christian Elphinstone, who was contracted to marry Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty in 1606, and was the mother of the author Thomas Urquhart.^[16]

Inventory of the Place of Elphinstone

After Lord Elphinstone died in 1638, an inventory was taken of his possessions at the Place of Elphinston, or Elphinstone Tower, which had been sealed in a coffer. The goods included his best clothes with "ane auld silk beaver hatt out of fashion", his books including John Williams's Great Britain's Solomon and John Smith's The Description of New England. A little box contained frivolous writs and missives, there was a brass clock to stand on a table, and velvet, damask, and leather cushions. In the tower there was a wine decanter with seven glasses, a brass warming-pan, and two cabinets with more worthless legal documents. Above the entry to the inner courtyard, the "mid yett", there was an iron clock with paces. All these items were taken up to a chamber at the head of the turnpike stair at the east end of the gallery, and locked up by the Depute Sheriff of Stirling, Thomas Craigengelt of Craigengelt.^[17]

Another document mentions the "New hall of the Place of Elphinstone" in December 1637, when Lord Elphinstone sold his velvet robes and saddles for attending the riding of the Parliament of Scotland to his son, Alexander, Master of Elphinstone.^[18]

References