was twice married: first to Agatha, daughter of James Halyburton of Pitcur, Forfarshire, by whom he was the father of three sons, two of whom died young, while the second, Sholto Charles, succeeded him; and secondly to Bridget, daughter of Sir John Heathcote, bart., of Normanton, who bore him a son and daughter, and who outlived him thirty-seven years.
[Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, ii. 276; Weld's Hist. of the Royal Society, ii. 22; De Fouchy's Histoire de l'Académie, ed. 1770; Barry's Hist. of Orkney, p. 260.]
DOUGLAS, Sir JAMES (1703–1787), admiral, son of George Douglas of Friarshaw, Roxburghshire, was, on 19 March 1743–4, promoted to be captain of the Mermaid of 40 guns, and commanded her at the reduction of Louisbourg by Commodore Warren. In 1746 he commanded the Vigilant of 64 guns on the same station, and for a short time in 1748 the Berwick of 74 guns, which was paid off at the peace. In 1756 he commanded the Bedford in the home fleet under Boscawen and Knowles, and in December and January (1756–7) was a member of the court-martial which tried and condemned Admiral Byng. In 1757 he commanded the Alcide in the bootless expedition against Rochfort. In 1759, still in the Alcide, he served under Sir Charles Saunders at the reduction of Quebec, and was sent home with the news of the success, an honourable distinction, which obtained for him knighthood and a gift of 500l. from the king. In 1760 he was appointed to the Dublin as commodore and commander-in-chief on the Leeward Islands station; and in 1761 the squadron under his command, in conjunction with a body of soldiers under Lord Rollo, captured the island of Dominica. In 1762 he was superseded by Rear-admiral Rodney, under whom he served as second in command at the reduction of Martinique, after which he was despatched with several of the ships to Jamaica. With these he reinforced the fleet off Havana under Sir George Pocock (Beatson, ii. 532, 553), and he himself, with his broad pennant in the Centurion, returned to England in charge of convoy. Towards the end of the year he was advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, and on the conclusion of peace went out again to the West Indies as commander-in-chief. In October 1770 he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and in 1773 hoisted his flag on board the Barfleur as commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, an appointment which he held for the next three years. In 1778 he attained the rank of admiral, but had no further service. He was for many years member of parliament for Orkney, was created a baronet in 1786, and died in 1787. He was twice married, and by his first wife left issue, in whose line the title still is.
[Charnock's Biog. Navalis, v. 290; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs, vols. ii. and iii.; Gent. Mag. (1787), vol. lvii. pt. ii. p. 1027; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Foster's Baronetage.]
DOUGLAS, JAMES (1753–1819), divine, antiquary, and artist, third and youngest son of John Douglas of St. George's, Hanover Square, London, was born in 1753. Early in life he was placed with an eminent manufacturer at Middleton, Lancashire, near the seat of Sir Ashton Lever, who was then forming his famous museum. Instead of attending to business he assisted Sir Ashton in stuffing birds; and his friends removed him to a military college in Flanders, where he gained reputation by the translation of a French work on fortification (Burke, Commoners, iv. 601). Another account, however, states that he was at first employed by his brother abroad as an agent for the business, and was left without resources in consequence of some misconduct (Addit. MS. 19097, f. 82, ‘from private information’). Afterwards he entered the Austrian army as a cadet, and at Vienna he became acquainted with Baron Trenck. Being sent by Prince John of Lichtenstein to purchase horses in England, and jocosely observing that he thought his head grinning on the gates of Constantinople would not be a very becoming sight, he did not return, and exchanged the Austrian for the British service. He obtained a lieutenant's commission in the Leicester militia, during the heat of the general war then raging, and was put on the staff of Colonel Dibbing of the engineers, and engaged in fortifying Chatham lines.
Leaving the army he determined to take orders, and entered Peterhouse, Cambridge (Cooper, Memorials, i. 14). He is said to have taken the degree of M.A., but his name does not appear in ‘Graduati Cantabrigienses.’ In January 1780 he married Margaret, daughter of John Oldershaw of Rochester, who had previously been an eminent surgeon at Leicester; and in the same year he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and entered into holy orders. The early part of his ministry was at Chedingford, Sussex. On 17 Nov. 1787 he was instituted to the rectory of Litchborough, Northamptonshire, on the presentation of Sir William Addington, and towards the close of that year he was appointed one of the Prince of Wales's chaplains. He resigned Litchborough in 1799 on being presented by the lord chancellor, through
