William Douglas of Orchardton and Almorness

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

( – 1821) was an advocate and a British

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 ...

in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Early life

Douglas was born in

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative county ...

around 1784. He was the son of James Douglas of Orchardton (1747–1821), a

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

merchant, and Elizabeth (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Douglas) Stevenson Douglas, who had previously been married to Captain William Stevenson, a distant cousin of his father. Among his siblings were sisters Mary Douglas (wife of William Rose Robinson) and Matilda Douglas (wife of William Maitland). His paternal grandparents were John Douglas, a Galloway farmer, and Mary (née Heron) Douglas and his maternal grandfather was William Douglas of Worcester. Through his sister, he was uncle to Douglas Robinson Sr. (who married Fanny Monroe, daughter of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

and a grand-niece of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

) and Sir William Robinson, KCSI, who served as acting

Governor of Madras This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947. English Agents In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized be ...

. He was educated at

Edinburgh High School The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1,200 pupils drawn from four feeder primar ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

Career

He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1806. Alongside his uncle, Sir William Douglas of Castle Douglas, he was a partner in the Galloway Banking Co. (Douglas, Napier, & Co), established in

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in the ...

in 1806 and which ceased trading in 1821, because of a bad debt. He was president of the

Speculative Society The Speculative Society is a Scottish Enlightenment society dedicated to public speaking and literary composition, founded in 1764. It was mainly, but not exclusively, an Edinburgh University student organisation. The formal purpose of the Society ...

between 1806 and 1809. An active Christian, he represented his parish as Ruling Elder at the Annual Meeting of the

General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body.''An Introduction to Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland'' by A. Gordon McGillivray ...

in 1811. Having previously tried for

Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( ; sco, Kirkcoubrie; gd, Cille Chùithbeirt) is a town, parish and a Royal Burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The town lies southwest of C ...

, but been rejected, he was subsequently elected as member of Parliament for

Plympton Erle Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to Pl ...

from December 1812 to June 1816, during which time he is not known to have spoken, and has just seven recorded votes. In 1812, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were Thomas Allan,

Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank The Hon Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank FRSE FSA (Scot) (1748–1816) was a Scottish advocate, academic jurist, judge and agriculturalist. Life The only son of Alexander Maconochie of Meadowbank, Kirknewton, Midlothian, by his wife Isabella, ...

, and

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

. Around 1816–1818, he accompanied the artist

Hugh William Williams Hugh William Williams FRSE (1773–1829), known as "Grecian Williams," was a Scottish landscape painter. Life Williams was born onboard the ship of his father, Captain Williams, whilst en route to the West Indies. His mother, "Miss Lewis", die ...

on a tour of continental Europe, which he (Douglas) funded and during which he also made paintings in his own right.

Personal life

Douglas died unmarried in 1821. Involved in the design of the Douglas Mausoleum in Kelton, near Castle Douglas, he was interred there following his death on 9 July 1821, alongside other family members.Mausoleums By Lynn F. Pearson

References

External links

* 1780s births 1821 deaths Scottish lawyers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Plympton Erle UK MPs 1812–1818 Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh {{England-UK-MP-stub