Robert Erskine (doctor)

Robert Erskine (1677–1718) was an advisor to Tsar Peter the Great. He became one of the Tsar's most powerful advisors.[1]

He is the first cousin of John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732).

He engaged in medical studies in Edinburgh, Paris and Utrecht and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1703. He arrived in Russia in 1704. Head of the entire medical chancellery, he was the Tsar's chief physician. He was so influential that he was appointed the first director of the St. Petersburg Kunstkamera and library. In 1716, the Tsar elevated him to privy councillor.[2]

Robert Erskine was a part of masonic network of Scottish Jacobites that influenced the Russian court.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Collis, Robert (2009) "Hewing the Rough Stone: Masonic Influence in Peter the Great's Russia, 1689-1725". In Andreas Önnerfors, Robert Collis (eds.) Freemasonry and Fraternalism in Eighteenth-Century Russia. Sheffield Lectures on the History of Freemasonry and Fraternalism. Volume Two. The University of Sheffield pg 53.
  2. ↑ ibid
  3. ↑ ibid, pg 54


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