123 
Francis Brown Douglas, Esq. By Professor Duns, D.D. 
Francis Brown Douglas was born at Largs, Ayrshire, April 2, 
1814. His father was Mr Archibald Douglas, advocate, Edin- 
burgh, and his mother was a daughter of Dr Francis Brown of St 
Vincent. He was educated at the Edinburgh High School, and for 
a short time in England. In early youth he went to the West 
Indies, where he was soon called to undertake the management of 
family estates. On his return to Scotland he studied for the 
Scottish Bar, and was admitted an advocate in 1837. He practised 
at the Bar for a short time only. Having an ample private fortune, 
he felt himself at full liberty to follow pursuits to him more con- 
genial than the hard work of his profession, and accordingly he 
devoted his time and energy earnestly to municipal, philanthropic, 
and religious work. He was elected a Fellow of this Society in 
1839. A man of general culture, he was intimately acquainted 
with several branches of current literature, and took a warm interest 
in public education. He was elected a member of the Edinburgh 
School Board when it was formed in 1872, and continued to serve 
in it till last election. Mr Brown Douglas entered the Edinburgh 
Town Council in 1850, and, after having acted as a magistrate for 
several years, he was chosen Lord Provost of the city in 1859. 
Two events occurred in the course of his Lord Provostship which 
may be mentioned, viz., the passing of the Annuity Tax Act, and 
the laying of the foundation stones of the Hew Post Office and the 
Hational Museum by the Prince Consort. Mr Brown Douglas was 
a Liberal in politics. He stood for the representation of the city in 
1856, but was defeated. Later, he became a candidate for the 
St Andrews Burghs, but was again unsuccessful. 
It was, however, chiefly in connection with religious and philan- 
thropic work that he stood prominently out before his fellow- 
citizens. For more than forty years his name was associated with 
almost all movements of this kind. He threw himself with great 
earnestness and zeal into the Scottish ecclesiastical controversies 
that characterised the decade ending in 1843. He continued till the 
time of his death in August 1885 to take the most active and cordial 
interest in the work of the Free Church, both at home and abroad, 
