Charles I., and joined Montrose after his victory at Kilsyth in 1645. He was present at the total defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh, but escaped from the field, and soon after made his peace with the now dominant party In his personal character he appears to have been one of the best of his race. He usually resided at the castle of Douglas, where he kept up the old Scottish hospitality and grandeur, and maintained a more numerous household than any nobleman in the kingdom. He was the father of three peers who bore different titles—viz., Archibald, his eldest son, who was the second marquis; William, who married the heiress of the great family of Hamilton, and became first Duke of Hamilton; and George, who was created Earl of Dumbarton.
Archibald Douglas, third marquis, succeeded to the title and estates in 1700, and was created Duke of Douglas in 1703. In the rebellion of 1715 his grace adhered to the royal side, and served as a volunteer in the battle of Sheriffmuir. On his death in 1761, without issue, the ducal title became extinct. The marquisate, which descended through heirs male, went to the direct representative of this famous old house, the duke of Hamilton; and the extensive estates of the family were inherited by Archibald Stewart, son of Sir John Stewart of Grandtully, and of Lady Jane Douglas, only sister of the duke of Douglas. The estates were claimed by the duke of Hamilton on the plea that Mr. Stewart was not the actual child of Lady Jane. The court of session sustained the plea, but their decision was overturned by the house of lords, who finally determined the cause in favour of Mr. Stewart. "The great Douglas cause," as it was termed, was the most important and interesting suit at law ever known in Scotland. The successful claimant was created a British peer in 1790 by the title of Lord Douglas of Castle Douglas. The title became extinct in 1858 on the death of James, fourth baron. The estates of the family devolved upon his niece the countess of Home.—(See Hume of Godscroft's History of the House of Douglas.)
Gawain Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, was the third son of Archibald, fifth earl of Angus, the celebrated Bell-the-Cat. He was born about the year 1474. It is probable that he completed his education on the continent, and having entered into holy orders, he was at an early age presented to the rectory of Hawick in Roxburghshire. Some time before the year 1509 he was appointed by James IV. provost of the collegiate church of St. Giles' in Edinburgh. A few months after the battle of Flodden, in 1513, he was nominated by the queen-dowager archbishop of St. Andrews, in the room of the king's son, Alexander Stewart, who fell with his father in that disastrous conflict. He was fiercely opposed by Hepburn, prior of St. Andrews, who had been elected by the canons, and by Forman, bishop of Moray, who obtained a grant of the benefice from the pope. Douglas withdrew in disgust from the unseemly contest. The other two candidates had recourse to arms in vindication of their claim, and Forman ultimately obtained possession of the primacy. In the following year the see of Dunkeld became vacant, and the queen again nominated Douglas, and obtained a papal bull in his favour. But he was imprisoned for more than a year on the charge of having violated the laws of the realm by procuring bulls from Rome; and when he was at last released, and proceeded to Dunkeld to take possession of his office, a rival candidate, the brother of the earl of Athol, attempted to keep possession of the episcopal palace and cathedral by force of arms. Douglas in the end obtained possession of his see without the effusion of blood, and discharged the duties of the office in the most exemplary manner. He was distinguished also for his acts of charity and munificence, in spite of the debts in which his various contests had involved him. He was unavoidably implicated in the distractions of these troublous times, and especially in the turbulent proceedings of his ambitious nephew, the earl of Angus. He made an unavailing but praiseworthy attempt to mediate between the rival factions of the Douglases and Hamiltons in the famous skirmish of "Clear the Causey," and rescued Archbishop Beaton from the fury of the victorious party. In the end the party of Angus was overthrown, and Bishop Douglas was obliged, along with his nephew, to take refuge at the court of Henry VIII., where the learned prelate was hospitably entertained and enjoyed the society of Polydore Virgil, and other eminent scholars. The dominant party in Scotland on the 21st of February, 1522, denounced the bishop as a traitor, sequestrated the revenues of his cathedral, and even wrote to the pope, beseeching his holiness to beware of nominating Douglas to the archbishopric of St. Andrews, which had again become vacant. The bishop was in consequence cited to appear at Rome; but before he could obey the summons he suddenly died of the plague at London in 1522, in the forty-eighth year of his age, and was interred in the Savoy church. "To splendour of birth," says Buchanan, "and a handsome and dignified person, he united a mind abundantly stored with the learning of the age, such as it then existed. His temperance and moderation were very remarkable; and living in turbulent times and surrounded by factions at bitter enmity with each other, such was the general opinion of his honesty and uprightness of mind that he possessed a high influence with all parties." Bishop Douglas left behind him various poems of no common merit. His chief original work is an elaborate and quaint allegory entitled "King Hart," intended to represent the progress of human life. It is ingenious and intricate, but somewhat heavy and full of alliteration. The longest of his original compositions is "The Palace of Honour," a complete allegory, displaying much learning and versatility of fancy, but frequently marred by incongruous passages and tedious and confused descriptions. His translation of Virgil's Æneid was produced before there was an English version of any of the classics, and has on the whole been executed with great felicity. The original pieces styled "prologues," which are affixed to each book, are among the poet's happiest pieces. His description of winter in the prologue to the seventh book has been pronounced equal to anything of the kind to be found in the whole range of ancient Scottish poetry. He also translated Ovid, De Remedio Amoris. Bishop Douglas possessed an exuberant imagination and great descriptive powers, but his descriptions are often prolix, and his imagery is tediously profuse.—J. T.
James Douglas. See Morton.
DOUGLAS, David, a zealous Scottish botanical collector, was born at Scone, near Perth, in 1799, and was killed in the Sandwich islands on the 12th of July, 1834. He was sent to school, first at Scone, and then at Kinnoul. At ten or twelve years of age he was employed in the nursery ground at Scone palace, where he served a seven years' apprenticeship. He commenced botanical excursions on the summer evenings, and made collections of plants. In 1818 he became gardener at Valleyfield, near Culross. Here he prosecuted his botanical studies with vigour, and was allowed to have access to the botanical works in the library of Sir R. Preston. After two years' employment at Valleyfield, he went to the botanic garden at Glasgow, where, under Mr. Stewart Murray the curator, he had every facility of becoming well acquainted with plants. He also attended the lectures of Professor Hooker, and accompanied him in some of his distant excursions, where "his great activity, undaunted courage, singular abstemiousness, and energetic zeal, at once pointed him out as an individual eminently calculated to do himself credit as a scientific traveller." He was recommended to Mr. Joseph Sabine, secretary of the Horticultural Society, as a collector, and he went to London in 1823. He was sent first to the United States, where he procured many fine plants, and greatly increased the society's collection of fruit trees. During the years 1824-27 he explored the north-western part of the continent of North America, visiting the Columbia river and North California, and thence going to Hudson's Bay. His journey extended from the Pacific to the source of the Columbia river, and thence to the Atlantic ocean. He returned to Britain, and in 1829 he was sent a second time to the Columbia river and California; and he also visited the Sandwich islands, especially Hawaii. Here it was that in 1834, while crossing Mauna Loa, on the north side, he met with an untimely fate by falling into a pit, excavated for the purpose of taking wild cattle, and being gored to death by a bullock which had previously been snared in the pit. His death was a great loss to botanical science. He sent many ornamental plants to Britain, which are now common in every flower garden. He introduced fifty-three new woods, and one hundred and forty-five new herbaceous plants of a hardy nature, including specimens of pentstemon, lupinus, œnothera, gilia, and collomia. A monument has been erected to him in the cemetery at Honolulu in Hawaii by Mr. Julius L. Brenchley.—J. H. B.
DOUGLAS, Sir Howard, Bart., a distinguished English officer, was born in 1776. He was the second son of admiral Sir Charles Douglas, for whom the merit of originating the
