37 



DOUGLAS FAMILY. 



DOUGLAS, DAVID. 



638 



first a daughter of tho twelfth Earl of Mar, and in her right was 

 styled Earl of Douglas and Mar. His son James, second Earl of 

 Douglas and Mar, married Margaret, eldest daughter of kiug Robert II., 

 but leaving no surviving male issue, the earldom of Mar devolved on 

 his sister, and the earldom of Douglas on Archibald Douglas, the natural 

 son of the good Sir James above alluded to, by special settlement. 

 This Archibald, third Earl of Douglas, styled from his great prowess 

 'Archibald the Grim,' had himself a natural son, who married a 

 daughter of king Robert II. 



William, the first Earl of Douglas, had no children by his second 

 marriage. By his third marriage, which was with the Lady Margaret, 

 sister and heir of the third Earl of Angus, he had a son, George, who 

 obtained, on his mother's resignation, a grant of the earldom of Au^iis. 

 He also got a grant of the eheriffship of Roxburgh, and is found in 

 that office anno 1398. The previous year he married Mary, second 

 daughter of king Robert III. 



Sir John Douglas, who gallantly defended the castle of Lochleven 

 against the English in the minority of David II., was a younger brother 

 of William, lord of Liddesdale, above mentioned. He had several 

 children, three of whom only however we shall here notice, James, 

 Henry, and John. The last of these married Mariota, daughter of 

 Reginald de Cheyne, co-justiciar of Scotland beyond the Grampians, 

 with John de Vain. Sir Henry married a niece of king Robert II., 

 an'l by her had a son, who married a granddaughter of the same 

 king. Sir James, the eldest, succeeded his uncle, the lord of Liddis- 

 clalc, in the lordship of Dalkeith and his other extensive possessions. 

 He was twice married, his second wife being a sister of king Robert II. 

 His eldest son, by his first marriage, married a daughter of king 

 Robert III., and bad a grandson, who married Johanna, daughter of 

 king James I., and relict of James, third Earl of Angus, and was on 

 the 14th of March 1457-58 created Earl of Morton. 



We have thus three earls of the house of Douglas : ths Earl of 

 Douglas, the Earl of Angus, and the Earl of Morton. 



Archibald IV., earl of Douglas, eldest son of Archibald the Grim, 

 married the eldest daughter of king Robert III., and by her had a son 

 of the same name, who in the lifetime of his father was styled Earl 

 of Wigton. On the death of king James I. he was chosen one of the 

 council of regency, and the next year made lieutenant-general of the 

 realm. His two sons, particularly William, the young Earl of 

 Douglas, despising tlie authority of an infant prince, and encouraged 

 by the divisions which arose among the nobility, erected a sort of 

 independent power within the kingdom, and forbidding the vassals 

 of the house to acknowledge any other authority, created knights, 

 appointed a privy council, and assumed all the exteriors of royalty. 

 They were both at length however beheaded, and the earldom of 

 Douglas passed to a grand-uncle, whose eldest son married his cousin, 

 'the fair maid of Galloway,' and restored the house to its former 

 splendour. He became lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and no less 

 formidable to the crown than the last in hi family who held that high 

 office. But this power proved his ruin, and dying without issue, he 

 was succeeded by his brother, in whom this great branch of the house 

 of Douelas was cut down and overthrown for treason. 



Archibald V., earl of Angus, great-grandson of William, first earl of 

 Douglas, through George, who obtained the earldom of Angus on his 

 mother's resignation as above-mentioned, was some time warden of 

 tho East Marches, and on the death of Argyle was made lord high 

 chancellor of the kingdom, and so continued till 1493, when he 

 resigned. He was commonly called 'the Great Earl of Angus ; ' and 

 according to the historian of his house, "was a man every way 

 accomplished both for mind and body." Gawin, bishop of Dunkeld, 

 the translator of Virgil, was his third son by his first marriage, which 

 was with a daughter of the lord high chamberlain of Scotland. The 

 biehop's two elder brothers, George, master of Angus, and Sir William 

 Douglas of Glenbervie, fell on the fatal field of Flodden ; and their 

 father, the old earl, who had in vain dissuaded the king from the 

 ruinous enterprise, bending under the calamity, retired into Galloway, 

 and coon after died. Sir Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, the earl's 

 son by a second marriage, was made lord treasurer of Scotland towards 

 the end of the year 1528, by king James V., who used to style him, 

 his ' Grey Stcil ; and the next year we find Archibald VI., earl of 

 Angus, eldest son of the deceased George, master of Angus, lord high 

 chancellor of the kingdom. This Archibald, the sixth earl of Angus, 

 married Margaret of England, queen dowager of James IV., and had 

 by her a daughter, who became the mother of Henry, lord Darnley, 

 husband of Mary, queen of Scots, and father of James I. of England. 

 On the fall of Angus, Sir George, bis brother, was exiled, and spent 

 the remainder of James's reign in England; and their sister Jean 

 was burnt as a witch on the castle hill of Edinburgh. The sou of 

 Sir George succeeded his uncle as seventh earl of Angus ; and on the 

 death of bis son, the eighth earl, commonly called " the Good Earl of 

 Augus," without male issue, Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, 

 great-grandson of Archibald, the great earl, succeeded to the earldom, 

 and had soon afterwards a charter from King James V., confirming all 

 the ancient privileges of the Douglas, namely, to have the first vote in 

 council, to be the king's lieutenant, to lead the van of the army in the 

 day of battle, and to carry the crown at coronations. 



The seventh Earl of Angns had a younger brother, who becamo 

 fourth Earl of Morton, and was the famous Regent Morton. He was 



condemned to death for the murder of Dnrnley, and was executed by 

 the maiden, an instrument which he himself introduced iuto Scotland. 



Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie above mentioned conveyed the 

 lands of Glenbervie to a younger son. His eldest son became tenth 

 Earl of Angus; and the son of the latter was in 1633 created Marquis 

 of Douglas, the same year in which another branch of the Douglas 

 family was advanced to be Earl of Queensberry. Archibald, eldest 

 son of the first Marquis of Douglas, officiated as lord high chamberlain 

 at the coronation of king Charles II., and was thereupon created Earl 

 of Ormond. His younger brother William had been some years before 

 created Earl of Selkirk ; but marrying afterwards Anne, duchess of 

 Hamilton, he was on her grace's petition created Duke of Hamilton 

 for life, and a new patent of the earldom of Selkirk issued in favour of 

 his younger sons, two of whom were themselves also elevated to tho 

 peerage. The third Marquis of Douglas was advanced to be Duke of 

 Douglas ; but on his death the dukedom became extinct, and the 

 marquisate devolved on the seventh Duke of Hamilton. His grace 

 was one of the parties in the great " Douglas cause," the subject of 

 which was the Douglas estates ; but these were ultimately awarded to 

 his opponent, who becoming entitled to the estate, assumed the name 

 and arms of Douglas, and in 1790 was raised to the peerage as Baron 

 Douglas of Douglas castle, in the shire of Lanark. 



The year following, George, 16th Earl of Morton, was enrolled among 

 the peers of Great Britain as Baron Douglas of Lochleven. The third 

 Earl of Queensberry had previously been raised to a marquisate and 

 dukedom ; and the fourth Duke of Queensberry, who was also third 

 Earl of March, made a peer of England by the title of Baron Douglas 

 of Amesbury; but on the death of his grace in 1810, the English 

 barony, conferred upon himself, and the Earldom of March, conferred 

 upon his grandfather, expired ; while the dukedom devolved on the 

 Duke of Buccleuch, and the original peerage descended to the Marquis 

 of Queensberry. 



DOUGLAS, DAVID, was born at Scone, in Perthshire, in 1798, 

 where his father was a working mason. He received a plain education 

 at the parish school of Kinnoul, and was early placed as an apprentice 

 in the garden of the Earl of Mansfield, at Scone Palace. As a lad he 

 was remarkable for his fondness for books and the study of plants. 

 In the winter he devoted bis evenings to reading, and in the summer 

 to making botanical excursions for the purpose of collecting the wild 

 plants of the neighbourhood. In 1818 he went to live at Valleyfield, 

 the seat of Sir Robert Preston, Bart., whose garden was then celebrated 

 for its choice collection of exotic plants. Here he was treated with 

 great kindness by the head-gardener, Mr. Stewart, who procured him 

 access to Sir Robert's valuable botanical library. Erom Valleyfield he 

 removed to Glasgow, where he was employed in the botanic garden of 

 the university. His intelligence attracted the attention of Dr. (now 

 Sir William) Hooker, who was the professor of botany at Glasgow, 

 and he made him his companion in his botanical excursions for the 

 purpose of collecting materials for his ' Flora Scotica," By Sir William 

 Hooker he was recommended to the Horticultural Society of London 

 as a botanical collector, and in 1823 he was sent to tho United States, 

 where he procured many fine plants, and greatly increased the 

 collection of fruit-trees in the possession of the society. In 1824 

 ho was sent by the Horticultural Society to explore the vegetable 

 productions of the country adjoining the Columbia River, and south- 

 ward towards California. The vessel in which he went out touched 

 at Rio de Janeiro, where he collected many rare orchidaceous plants 

 and bulbs. In the course of his voyage round Cape Horn ho shot 

 many rare and curious birds. He visited the island of Juan Fernan- 

 dez, where he sowed a quantity of garden-seed, with the wish, he says, 

 that he might " add to the collection of a second Robinson Crusoe, 

 should one appear." He arrived at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia 

 River, in April 1825. During his journey he sent home from time to 

 time large numbers of beautiful plants, with seeds and dried speci- 

 mens, the latter of which were added to the herbarium of the society 

 at Chiswick. Of the genus Pimu he discovered several species of 

 gigantic size, one of which has been named after himself, P. J)tmglasii. 

 In the spring of 1827 he went from Fort Vancouver across the Rocky 

 Mountains to Hudson's Bay, where he met Captain (afterwards Sir 

 John) Franklin, Dr. Richardson, and Captain (now Sir George) Back, 

 returning from their second overland arctic expedition. With these 

 travellers he returned to England, briuging with him the results of 

 his researches. Shortly after his return he was elected, free of 

 expense, fellow of the Linnean, Zoological, and Geological societies. 

 He remained in London two years, and sailed again for the Columbia 

 River in 1829. He afterwards went to the Sandwich Islands, where 

 he had remained tome months when an accident put an end to his 

 existence. The natives of the Sandwich Islands are iti tho habit of 

 making pits, in which they catch the wild bulls. In one of his 

 excursions, Mr. Douglas fell accidentally into one of those pits, in 

 which an infuriated animal was already trapped. The animal fell 

 upon him, and he was found dreadfully mutilated and quite dead. 

 This occurred on the 12th of July 1834. 



Of modern botanical travellers, Douglas was one of the most enter- 

 prising and successful. Almost all the new hardy plants of our 

 gardens were introduced by him. To him we are not only indebted 

 for many valuable timber-trees, for numerous species of tho beautiful 

 genus Biles, and other ornamental shrubs, but the favourites of every 



