Anne Erskine

Ann(e) Agnes Erskine (1739 – 5 October 1804) was a friend and trustee of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. She became an important figure in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion which was a group of churches which still survives. Life Erskine was born in Edinburgh in 1739. the eldest child of Agnes and Henry David Erskine, tenth earl of Buchan (1710–1767). Her mother was the daughter of Sir Ann and James Steuart, first baronet (1681–1727), of Goodtrees. Her brothers were David Steuart Erskine, eleventh earl of Buchan who founded the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; Henry Erskine, lawyer and Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine, lord chancellor from 1806 to 1807. Her maternal grandfather was Sir Hew Dalrymple and his brother was Sir James Steuart was the Jacobite political economist. She and her brothers were home schooled by their mother in religious household. When she was an adult she became a carer for her father who was living in Walcot. Her paternal grandfather has a friend of Selina the Countess of Huntingdon and George Whitefield who were evangelical methodists. Lady Huntingdon's chapel was used for her father's funeral when he died at the end of 1767. The service was conducted by George Whitefield. She became Lady Huntingdon's secretary living with her at Spa Fields in Islington. Lady Huntingdon had bought a huge chapel in 1779 which attracted congregations of 2,000, but she called "her private chapel". The building had been built as a Pantheon or theatre-in-the-round and it had a huge dome. Erskine and Huntingdon lived nest door in what had been the Dog and Duck and which had been rebuilt in 1756.