Lt. Col. Hon. David Montagu Erskine

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via son St. Vincent Witshed Erskine by SmartCopy: Jan 19 2015, 11:19:36 UTC

http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00448706&tree=LEO

GEDCOM Note

Biography ==:1. David Erskine (Hon), b. 1816, went to Harrow, and joined the army (51st King’s Own Light Infantry) as an ensign in 1835 seeing servicein India, Malta and Australia. :2. After being promoted to Lieutenant in 1838, he made the journey out to Tasmania with 397 male prisoners, being shipped out from Englandfor Hobart Town (Ref 4). :3. David arrived in Tasmania on 1 April 1838 on the Moffatt having left England on 7 Nov 1837. :4. David was appointed Visiting Magistrate in Cleveland, Tasmania in June 1839, at Green Ponds from November 1840 to March 1843, and then moved to Hobart. :5. David was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1845 and he left the Colony in 1846 per the China, for India (Ref 6). :6. He was promoted to Major in 1855 and in 1858 he left the army by selling his commission. :7. He then succeeded in his application to become Colonial Secretary of Natal colony. :8. He had seven children and then married again whereby he had four more. :9. His son Robert died in the Drakensberg mountains while trying to protect his commanding officer Durnford against Zulu rebels. :10. David Erskine left Natal in 1875 with a ‘substantial pension’(actually £500 per annum), and was Resident Magistrate in Walvis Bay(which was an enclave in what is now Namibia, under the administration of the Cape) from 1878 to 1880. :11. After his retirement from that he moved the family to England, where he was given the job of getting the Natal archives there in order.:12. Later, insolvency proceedings were pursued against him and he pleaded that since leaving Natal in 1875 he had had no regular occupationand investments in various enterprises had gone wrong.

He passed away in 1903.

Sources

<references /> 1. http://www.thepeerage.com/p18690.htm#i186893
2. Mosley, Charles, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A., p. 398

3. Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.

4. http://www.convictrecords.com.au/ships/moffatt/1837
5. Marriage: Colonial Times, 19 Nov 1839 and Hobart Town Courier, 15 Nov 1839.

6. Wayn Index - Archives Office of Tasmania
Supplemented from:Erskine family records e.g. Descendant Mike Mills; Correspondence fromErskine Grant-Dalton, another descendant,
Gallwey family records
Duke of Portland's papers at Nottingham University,