Archibald Douglas gained the cause and succeeded to the estate of his uncle the duke, Francis Douglas was for his services gifted with the life-rent of a farm known as Abbots-Inch, near Paisley. He died at Abbots-Inch about 1790, aged, it is thought, about eighty, and was buried in the churchyard of Paisley Abbey. His surviving children were two daughters, who were married in that neighbourhood.
James Chalmers says Douglas ‘was bred a presbyterian, but went over to the church of England, and, like many new converts, displayed much acrimony against the church he had left. His farming was theoretical, not practical, and so fared of it. He had nearly beggared himself on his farm at Drum.’
His works are: 1. ‘The History of the Rebellion in 1745 and 1746, extracted from the “Scots Magazine;” with an appendix containing an account of the trials of the rebels; the Pretender and his son's declarations, &c.,’ Aberdeen, 1755, 12mo (anon.) 2. ‘A Pastoral Elegy to the memory of Miss Mary Urquhart,’ Aberdeen, 1758, 4to. 3. ‘Rural Love, a tale in the Scottish dialect,’ and in verse, Aberdeen, 1759, 8vo; reprinted with Alexander Ross's ‘Helenore, or the Fortunate Shepherdess,’ Edinburgh, 1804. 4. ‘Life of James Crichton of Clunie, commonly called the Admirable Crichton’ [Aberdeen?, 1760?], 8vo. 5. ‘Reflections on Celibacy and Marriage,’ London, 1771, 8vo. 6. ‘Familiar Letters, on a variety of important and interesting subjects, from Lady Harriet Morley and others,’ London, 1773, 8vo (anon.) 7. ‘The Birth-day; with a few strictures on the times; a poem, in three cantos. With the preface and notes of an edition to be printed in the year 1982. By a Farmer,’ Glasgow, 1782, 4to. 8. ‘A general Description of the East Coast of Scotland from Edinburgh to Cullen. Including a brief account of the Universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen; of the trade and manufactures in the large towns, and the improvement of the country,’ Paisley, 1782, 12mo.
‘The Earl of Douglas, a dramatic essay,’ London, 1760, 8vo (anon.), has been erroneously ascribed to Douglas. It was really written by John Wilson.
[Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 222, 332, 383; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen, p. 107; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Cat. of Printed Books in the Advocates' Library; Bruce's Eminent Men of Aberdeen, p. 61.]
DOUGLAS, GAWIN or GAVIN (1474?–1522), Scotch poet and bishop, was the third son of Archibald, fifth earl of Angus [q. v.], familiarly known, from his influence and pronounced energy and decision of character, as ‘the great earl,’ and Archibald Bell-the-Cat. Douglas was born about 1474, but the place of his birth is not known. Although he was in all likelihood a Lothian man, like Dunbar, he may have been born at any one of the various family residences in East Lothian, Lanark, Forfar, and Perth. Little is known of his youth, but it seems quite certain that he studied at St. Andrews from 1489 to 1494, while Bishop Sage suggests that he may have continued his studies on the continent, and Warton (History of English Poetry, vol. iii.) is satisfied that he completed his education at the university of Paris.
Having taken priest's orders, Douglas was, in 1496, presented to Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, and two years later the king gave him the promise of the parsonage of Glenquhom, soon to become vacant by the resignation of the incumbent. But his first important and quite definite post was at Prestonkirk, near Dunbar. He seems to have had two chapels in this diocese, one where the modern village of Linton stands, and the other at Hauch, or Prestonhaugh, now known as Prestonkirk. This accounts for his descriptive title ‘Parson of Lynton and Rector of Hauch.’ The latter name, for a time misread as Hawick, gave rise to certain eloquent but erroneous æsthetic passages in the narratives of early biographers. Even Dr. Irving—usually a sober and trustworthy guide—has a rapturous outburst (History of Scotish Poetry, p. 255) on the exceeding appropriateness of placing a youthful ecclesiastic with poetic instincts ‘amid the fine pastoral scenery of Teviotdale.’ The result of recent research is to exclude the influence of the borders from the development of Douglas, and also to limit the dimensions of the plurality to which, about 1501, he was preferred, when the king made him provost of St. Giles, Edinburgh. While holding these posts, conveniently situated as regards distance, and not too exacting in the amount of work required, he wrote his various poems, and it is thought not improbable that the poetical address to James IV at the close of the ‘Palice of Honour’ (his earliest work) may have induced the king to give him the city appointment. For several years little is known of the activity of Douglas, but in the city records we find that he was chosen, 20 Sept. 1513, a burgess, ‘pro communi bono villæ gratis.’ From this year onwards his career was influenced and moulded by national events.
Within a year from the king's death at Flodden, Queen Margaret married Douglas's nephew, the young and handsome Earl of Angus, whose father had fallen at Flodden.
