Alexander Elphinstone, 5th Lord Elphinstone

Extract from The Scots Peerage (Volume III) by Sir James Balfour Paul (Edinburgh 1906) page 540-541 (http://archive.org/details/cu31924092516206)

Alexander, fifth Lord Blphinstone, was born 13 November 1577 ; on 15 December 1593 he had a Crown charter of part of theKirktown, and on 25 January 1593-94 the town and burgh of Kildrummy. But his name occurs in many other charters of lands granted to him by his father previous to his marriage in 1607, so that by that time he was in possession of a considerable proportion of the Elphinstone estates. After having come under some suspicion of attachment to the old form of faith, he was sent to the University of St. Andrews, where he attended the lectures of Mr. Andrew Melville, subscribed the Confession of Faith, and conformed to the religion then established in the kingdom. On 7 March 1605 he was admitted as a member of the Privy Council,' and gave very regular attendance at the meetings of that body. He had, along with his wife, a Crown charter on 5 July 1608 of the lands of Rossie, co. Perth, and others ; and he made the mansion of Rossie his principal residence. He appears to have been created a Senator of the College of Justice before his marriage in 1607, and is described as such in the marriage-contract and in the charter last mentioned. In a subsequent charter of 2 May 1611 he is called ' dominus de Kildrummy et unus senatorum OoUegii Justitie, from which it is to be presumed that he took the title of Lord Kildrummy as a courtesy title. On 28 June 1633 he got from Parliament a ratification of his title to the lands and barony of Elpliinstone and in 1638 he succeeded his father as fifth Lord Elphinstone, and in the same year supported the other members of the Privy Council in their opposition to the Service-Book sought to be imposed on the Church by the King. On 22 September he signed, along with the rest of the Council, the King's Covenant. He continued to take an active part in public life to his death, which took place 27 August 1648.