John Elphinstone, 2nd Lord Balmerino

John Elphinstone, 2nd Lord Balmerino (died 28 February 1649) was a Scottish aristocrat, convicted in a celebrated trial of the 1630s which became a crux of the religious issue of the time.

His father being under attainder when he died in 1613, the title did not devolve to him, but he was restored to blood and peerage by a letter under the great seal, 4 August 1613.

[2] This survived until the 1950s when it sadly evaded the survey by the City Architect, Ebenezer James MacRae, as it was by then sandwiched between St Mary's Star of the Sea Church and tenements on the Kirkgate.

When his decision was objected to, Charles, who was present, insisted that it must be held good unless the clerk were accused from the bar of falsifying the records.

[1] William Haig of Bemersyde, solicitor to James VI, and one of those opposed to the measure, drew up a petition, setting forth their grievances and praying for redress.

In June he was indicted before the justice-general, William Hay, 10th Earl of Erroll, on the accusation of the king's advocate Sir Thomas Hope.

The matter was ordered to be tried by a jury, the charge being narrowed down to the one count that he, knowing the author of what was held to be a dangerous and seditious libel, failed to discover him.

Along with the Earl of Rothes and others went on 22 March 1639 to Dalkeith to demand the delivery to them of the palace by the lord treasurer Traquair, and to bring the royal ensigns of the kingdom, the crown, sword, and sceptre, to Edinburgh.

When, after the disastrous campaigns of Argyll, the command of the covenanters was entrusted to Sir William Baillie, Balmerino was one of those nominated to advise him.

He was buried in the vaulted cemetery of the Logan family, adjoining the church of Restalrig, but according to Scot of Scotstarvet, the New Model Army soldiers of Oliver Cromwell disinterred the body in 1660 while searching for leaden coffins, and threw it into the street.