Erskine Douglas Sandford FRSE (31 July 1793–4 September 1861) was a 19th-century Scottish advocate and legal author.

He was born at 22 South Frederick Street in Edinburgh's New Town, then a new house, on 31 July 1793 the son of Helen Frances Catherine Douglas and her husband, Bishop Daniel Sandford.^[1]

After studying law he passed the Scottish bar as an advocate in 1816.

In 1828 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being George Augustus Borthwick.^[2] At this time he was living with his family at 25 Heriot Row.^[3]

In 1828 he was involved in the trial of William Burke and Helen McDougal for the Burke and Hare Murders.^[4] When travelling on a mailcoach in 1829, he realised that one of his fellow passengers was in fact a disguised William Hare (who had been granted immunity from prosecution).^[4] This was one of the last reliable sightings of Hare, whose eventual fate is unknown.

In 1833 he replaced Adam Urquhart as Sheriff of Wigtown.^[5]

In 1837 he is listed as one of the few contributors to the Scottish Episcopal Fund, a fund begun in 1806 to establish the Scottish Episcopalian Church.^[6]

He lived his later life at 11 Randolph Crescent on the edge of the Moray Estate in western Edinburgh.^[7]

He died at Alvechurch Rectory on 4 September 1861.^[8]

His uncles were Daniel Keyte Sandford and Francis Sandford, 1st Baron Sandford.^[9]

In 1829 he married Joanna Grace Graham (d.1890). They had two daughters and three sons.

He was uncle to Daniel Sandford (Bishop of Tasmania)

• A Treatise on the History and Law of Entails in Scotland
• A Treatise on the Law of Heritable Succession in Scotland