Background
He was the younger son of Gavin Elliot of Midlem Mill, Roxburghshire, and his wife, Margaret Hay.
He was the younger son of Gavin Elliot of Midlem Mill, Roxburghshire, and his wife, Margaret Hay.
He was educated at the University of Edinburgh.
After similarly helping the Earl of Argyll in 1681, Elliot went into exile in Europe in 1685, and in his absence was sentenced to death and forfeiture. He was pardoned by King James VII and returned to Scotland in 1687, where he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1688. After the Glorious Revolution, the forfeiture was quashed in 1690.
Elliot became a clerk to the Privy Council of Scotland, was knighted in 1692, and made a baronet, of Minto, in 1700.
He sat in the Parliament of Scotland for Roxburghshire from 1703 until its abolition in 1707, which he opposed. In 1703 he became a judge of the Court of Session, taking the judicial title of Lord Minto.