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Back
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Person Code
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NA22274
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Family Name
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Erskine
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Territorial Designation
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of Cambo
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Dates
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17th-19th century
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Epithet
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family
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Activity
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The history of the estate of Cambo, in the parish of Kingsbarns, Fife, can be traced back to the twelfth century, when William the Lion granted a charter to Robert de Newenham, a Northumberland baron whose descendants adopted the designation 'de Cambhou'. The estate was divided into Upper and Lower Cambo in the late fourteenth century. Prior to 1506 the lands of Cambo were occupied by the family of Myretoun or Mortoun of that ilk as subtenants of the earls of Crawford, barons of Cambo. In 1506 the then earl resigned Cambo in favour of David Miretoun of that ilk, whose descendants subsequently held the barony directly of the crown as lairds of Cambo. Though the barony was apparently apprised and sold to pay off debts in 1653, there is some indication that the Myretoun laird retained or recovered all or part of it, such that he retained the style 'of Cambo' in the 1660s, before the barony was finally sold to the earl of Kellie's brother.
The family of Erskine of Cambo was a cadet of the family of Erskine, earls of Kellie. The first earl of Kellie's only son, Alexander Erskine, viscount of Fentoun (d. 1633) predeceased his father, and the title passed in turn to the viscount's two elder sons, Thomas and Alexander, and then to Alexander's successors. The viscount's third son, Sir Charles Erskine, Bt, (d. 1677) Lyon King of Arms, purchased the Cambo estate in 1669 and with him began the line of Erskine of Cambo. The succession continued through a further seven baronets, but the line effectively came to an end in 1797 in the person Sir Charles Erskine of Cambo, 8th Bt (1765-1799), who became laird of Cambo in 1791 and 8th earl of Kellie in 1797, when the main line of Erskine of Kellie died out with Archibald, 7th earl. The lairds of Cambo remained earls of Kellie only until Methven Erskine, 10th earl of Kellie, died childless in 1829. Six years later the committee of privileges upheld the claim to the earldom of Kellie made by John Francis Miller Erskine, 9th earl of Mar. By this stage the brief union of the Kellie and Cambo estates was already over: an entail imposed on the property meant that, with the extinction of the direct male line, Cambo fell to the son of an illegitimate daughter of Thomas Erskine, 9th earl of Kellie. This earl's marriage was childless, but he had had a daughter in Sweden, Anna Eglehart, before his marriage, and he and the countess adopted Anna's children. The eldest of these grandchildren became David Erskine of Cambo (1792-1841). A new baronetcy was created for David in 1821and this has lasted into the twenty-first century. Sir David Erskine, 5th Bt, of Cambo was born in 1912 and succeeded to the title in 1944.
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Associated records
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| GB227/msdep 97 | Estate papers of the Erskine of Cambo family, Kingsbarns, Fife | c1402-1853 |
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