ERSKINE, GEORGE [SSNE 1155]

Surname

ERSKINE, ESKE, AERSKONE, ARSKIN

First name

GEORGE

Title/rank

CAPTAIN

Nationality

SCOT

Social status

OFFICER

Text source

Captain George Erskine served as one of the Scottish officers at Thorn city with Colonel William Cranston's [SSNE 2101] regiment between 1656-8 on behalf of the Swedes. He was among those targeted in numerous letters by General John Middleton, Major General Thomas Rokeby, Colonel Alex Durhame and Mr Davissone as one of the Cranstoun officers who may be persuaded to help hand over the city of Thorn to the Poles as this would demonstrate his loyalty to Charles II. Other officers names in the letter included Major Mercer, Captain Ramsay, Captain Lawsone, Captain Edmonstone, and 'honest Archie Stirling'.

Swedish Krigsarkiv, katalog over rullor, 1656 Preussen del II, vol.10, p.192; Swedish Riksarkiv, Extranea 135: IX, 4, interciperade brev 1600-talet, II brev till Skotska officerare, including 1) Middleton to Erskine, no date 2 & 3) Alex Durhame to Erskine, 24 October and 28 November 1657 4)Thomas Rokeby to Erskine, 28 November 1657 5) Mr Davissone to 'my honest friends the Scots officers in Torne' no date; T. Fischer, The Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia (Edinburgh, 1903), pp.134-5; A. Grosjean, 'Royalist Soldiers and Cromwellian Allies? The Cranstoun Regiment in Sweden 1655-1658' in S. Murdoch and A. Mackillop (eds.), Fighting for Identity: Scottish Military Experience c.1550-1900 (Leiden, 2002), pp.61-82; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.80, 359, 360.

Service record

SWEDEN, WILLIAM CRANSTON, THORN/TORUN

Arrived 1655-01-01, as CAPTAIN

Departed 1658-12-31, as CAPTAIN

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY