Sir William Douglas, 1st Baronet (died 1809) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

landowner and industrialist, best known for founding the planned town of

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas () 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 ecclesiastical paris ...

in the

Stewartry of Kirkcudbright 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 ...

(now within

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

), south-west

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. He began life as a humble pedlar but soon became wealthy from dealings in an unspecified 'American trade'. He returned to Scotland in the late 18th century, where his major work was the development of cotton mills and a town next to

Carlingwark Loch Carlingwark Loch is a small freshwater loch in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland lying just south of Castle Douglas and is roughly rectangular in shape, trending nearly north and south. The name of the ...

. This was a planned town set around a

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogon ...

system of streets, similar to that of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

New Town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

, planned at around the same time. This town was named

in 1792, having previously been known as "Carlingwark". Sir William also established cotton mills in

Newton Stewart Newton Stewart (Scottish Gaelic language, Gd: ''Baile Ùr nan Stiùbhartach'') is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. The town is on the River Cree with most of the town to ...

, which was temporarily renamed "Newton Douglas" in his honour, and a range of industries in Castle Douglas including a brewery, woollen mill, soap works and tannery. Douglas was granted a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

cy in 1801. In 1805 he built himself a mansion at Gelston Castle, which has been attributed to architect Robert Crichton. The castellated mansion is currently a vacant shell. An obelisk was erected in the village of Gelston in his memory. He died unmarried, in 1809, and his lands were divided amongst his nieces and nephews, whilst his baronetcy became extinct. His body was buried in a mausoleum which has been attributed to architect

Walter Newall Walter Newall (3 April 1780 – 25 December 1863) was a Scottish architect and civil engineer, born at Doubledyke in the parish of New Abbey in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. He was the leading architect in the Dumfries ar ...

, named The Douglas Mausoleum, and this was added upon with at least 20 more members of family over the years. The site on Kelton Hill overlooks Carlingwark towards Castle Douglas.

References

Year of birth missing 1809 deaths Nobility from Dumfries and Galloway

501 __NOTOC__ Year 501 ( DI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avienus and Pompeius (or, less frequently, year 1254 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 501 fo ...

19th-century Scottish landowners {{Scotland-bio-stub