House of Dun

House of Dun and the Jacobites

The 11th Earl of Mar

John Erskine was the 11th Earl of Mar, and lived in the House of Dun from when he was born in 1675. He was an important landowner and politician, and he played an key role in the Act of Union between Scotland and England in 1707, and then went on to lead the Jacobites in the 1715 uprising. His frequent changes of sides led to him being known as ‘Bobbing John’, and to his losing the trust of just about everyone.

When George I arrived in England to take up his throne in 1714, John Erskine was serving in the Government as ‘Third Secretary for Great Britain’. He wrote George I a grovelling letter of welcome, in which he pledged his loyalty, but was then publicly snubbed by George.

This prompted the Earl of Mar to make a swift decision to back a different horse, and on 6 September 1715 he raised a standard for King James VIII at Braemar. He rapidly gathered an enthusiastic army of over 10,000 men and started to gain considerable ground in northern Scotland.

But there were three big problems with all of this. The first was that John Erskine had neglected to tell James in advance of his planned uprising. The second was that he had failed to coordinate his actions with Jacobite uprisings planned in England. Thirdly, the Earl of Mar was an administrator, not a soldier. As a result, what was by far the best opportunity the Jacobites would ever have of regaining power was squandered.

On 13 November 1715, a large part of the Earl of Mar's army was advancing from Perth when they met a much smaller government army at the battle of Sheriffmuir. Mar’s forces just about won on the day, but his army was in too much of a mess afterwards to pursue the retreating government troops, and instead he withdrew back to Perth.

Meanwhile, James Stuart was only able to reach Scotland on 22 December, when he landed at Peterhead. But by then he was too late, the uprising was all but over. The Jacobites abandoned Perth on 31 January 1716, and on the 4th February James Stuart and Mar, sailed out of Montrose, heading for France. Neither would ever return.

The Earl of Mar continued trying to raise foreign support for the Jacobite cause, but this all ended in 1721 when it emerged he had betrayed the leader of the English Jacobites, Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, probably in the hope of being given permission to return home. Many Jacobites had already ceased to trust him, but after this they all cut their ties with him.