Witham Public Library (geograph 5405138)

Lt-General Archibald Douglas of Kirkton (1707 – 8 November 1778) was a Scottish Army officer and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. He was the eldest son of William Douglas of Fingland and Elizabeth (Betty) Clerk. His father, a former Jacobite, had been forced to sell the family estate. He joined the army as a Cornet in the 4th Dragoons (then Sir Robert Rich's Dragoons) in 1739, rising to lieutenant in 1742, captain in 1745, major in 1746, lieutenant-colonel in 1746, colonel in 1756, major-general in 1759 and lieutenant-general in 1761. He took part in the Battles of Dettingen (where he had 3 horses shot from under him and an eyebrow shot away) and

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

. In 1756 he was made Aide-de-Camp to King George II. In 1758 he was made Regimental Colonel of the 13th Dragoons, a position he held until his death. He sat as member for the Dumfries Burghs (

Lochmaben Lochmaben ( Gaelic: ''Loch Mhabain'') is a small town and civil parish in Scotland, and site of a castle. It lies west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. By the 12th century the Bruce family had become the local landowners and, in the 14th ...

, Annan and

Sanquhar Sanquhar ( sco, Sanchar, gd, Seanchair) is a village on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, north of Thornhill and west of Moffat. It is a former Royal Burgh. It is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and con ...

) from 1754 to 1761, and for

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries (''Siorrachd Dhùn Phris'' in Gaelic) is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county. I ...

from 1761 to 1774. In 1763 he purchased a country house in Newland Street, Witham, Essex which was later known as White Hall. Douglas died in Dublin in 1778 and was buried at St Nicholas church, Witham, where there is a memorial to him. He had married in 1746 Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Burchard of Witham, Essex, with whom he had 6 sons, including

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

, and 5 daughters.

References

1707 births 1778 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1754–1761 British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 Place of birth missing People from Dumfries 13th Hussars officers British Army lieutenant generals British Army personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession {{UK-army-bio-stub