Lives of the great advocates: Thomas Erskine

In this new series, I will be examining the careers of some of the most famous barristers in English legal history, their sensational trials and their extraordinary lives out of court and outside the law.

I begin with Thomas Erskine (1750-1823). Although born into the Scottish nobility, he grew up in straitened circumstances. It was, however, a time when young men of talent and ambition could quickly make a name for themselves. Erskine had both in abundance. From his earliest years, young Thomas displayed a preternatural self-confidence and it must be acknowledged that his shining qualities were to some extent marred by an almost comical conceit. Indeed, in his maturity he would come to be caricatured as ‘Baron Ego’. Given his zeal to be a great man, Erskine would doubtless have preferred, had his father’s means allowed, to be educated at public school and university. Instead, he went to sea as a midshipman and