Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, William Scott
DOUGLAS, WILLIAM SCOTT (1815–1883), editor of Burns's works, was born in Hawick 10 Jan. 1815, and educated in Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh. He devoted much of his attention to the study of the facts connected with the life and works of Burns, acquiring perhaps a more thorough mastery of them than any previous editor of Burns's works. In 1850 he read a paper on the ‘Highland Mary’ incident of Burns's life before the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. His principal publications are a reissue of the Kilmarnock ‘popular edition’ of the ‘works’ of Burns, with memoir, 1871, revised edition 1876; ‘Picture of the County of Ayr,’ 1874; and a splendid library edition of the ‘Works,’ of Burns, in 6 vols. (prose 3 vols., poetry 3 vols.), 1877–9. The poems in this edition are arranged chronologically, and while it is the most sumptuous that has been published, it is also the most complete and correct, both as regards text and notes. He also supplied letterpress for an edition of Crombie's ‘Modern Athenians,’ published in 1882. In 1877 he succeeded James Ballantine as secretary of the Edinburgh Burns Club. He was found drowned in Leith Harbour, 23 June 1883.
[Irving's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Scotsman Newspaper, 25 June 1883.]