St Kilda Kilts & Scottish Gifts

The Erskine crest us a hand holding a skene (knife) on a chapeau hat. The motto is Je Pense Plus, French for ‘I think more’.

The chief of the Erskine’s have had different crests over time, but we’re lucky to have evidence going back centuries. Sir Robert Erskine of that Ilk, who lived in the time of David II, had the crest of a griffin’s head and wings, inside a coronet. Another crest of his in 1357 was a boar’s head. His son Sir Thomas Erskine in 1364 used the earlier griffon crest, but the griffon has a sprig in its beak.

It was in the sixteenth century that Lord Erskine had the more familiar crest of a hand holding a cutlass (a short rounded sword) and the motto ‘Je Pense Plus’, which is close to the modern version. This is how it appears in the Workman’s manuscript of the 1560s (R.R. Stoddart, Scottish Arms being a Collection of Armorial Bearings 1370-1678, pp.22-23, 98).

The significance of the hand holding a small sword or knife is unknown. Weapons being held aloft is sometimes a sign of victory, although no specific event is recorded as informing this. At least, not that we’ve found.

By the 1680s the crest had developed a little further to as we know it today. Sir George MacKenzie in the 1680s recorded the crest of the Erskine Earl of Mar as a right hand holding a ‘skein’ (knife, as in Sgian Dubh) and the motto ‘Je Pense Plus’ (I think more). This was the standard crest right into the twentieth century. The addition of the cap of maintenance is a more modern addition. It was not present in James Balfour-Paul’s Scots Peerage of 1908, so was added sometime since then.

Our older Carrick line of Clan Crests have this interpretaion of Erskine.

MKP 4 October 2023