Robert St Clair-Erskine, 4th Earl of Rosslyn
Scottish Earl (1833–1890)

Robert Francis St Clair-Erskine, 4th Earl of Rosslyn (2 March 1833 – 6 September 1890), styled Lord Loughborough from 1851 until 1866, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms under Lord Salisbury between 1886 and 1890.
Early life
Rosslyn was the son of James St Clair-Erskine, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn, and Frances (née Wemyss). He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1866.
He served under Lord Salisbury as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms from 1886 until shortly before his death in September 1890. He was a minor poet and published "Sonnets" in 1883, "A Jubilee Lyric" in 1887 (dedicated to Queen Victoria) and "Sonnets and Poems" in 1889.
Freemasonry
Robert joined Lodge Oswald of Dunnikier together with James Townsend Oswald on 8 April 1867. In addition to being a Grand Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Scotland between 1870 and 1873, he became Depute Master of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, on 1 August 1853. Lord Rosslyn was the Grand Master of the modern Masonic Great Priory of Scotland from 1884 until his death in 1890.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7349975. VIAF identifies the subject as 53967237. The Library of Congress control number is no2008118244. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1833, 1890, 1851 and 1866.
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