David Wemyss, 2nd Earl of Wemyss

David, Lord Elcho

David Wemyss, 2nd Earl of Wemyss (6 September 1610 – July 1679) was an army officer.

Only son of John Wemyss, 1st Earl of Wemyss and Jean Gray (d. 1640), daughter of Lord Gray.

As Lord Elcho, a title he held between 1633 and 1649, he commanded a regiment of Fife infantry in the Scottish army which reached Newcastle upon Tyne in August 1640. On 1 September 1644, at the head of about 6000 men, he was routed by Montrose at Tippermuir, and in August 1645, as supernumerary commander to Lieutenant-General William Baillie, again suffered defeat by Montrose's forces at Kilsyth.

He married three times:

• (July 1625) Anna (d. 1649), daughter of Robert Balfour, 2nd Lord Balfour of Burleigh; he had one daughter, Jean, who married George Gordon, 15th Earl of Sutherland
• (April 1650) Helenor (d. 1652), daughter of John Fleming, 2nd Earl of Wigtown;
• (13 January 1653) Margaret (d. 1688), daughter of John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes, and widow of Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Buccleuch; one daughter, Margaret, the only child to outlive her father.

He died in 1679 at Wemyss Castle in Fife, whose estate he had done much to develop.