William Douglass (1610 - 1682)

[Douglas Anderson]

Myself and others are interested in William Douglass (born 1610 in ?, died 1682 in New London,CT) and confirming his birthplace.  Tradition has it as Scotland but recent work by Betsey Howe suggests that it William's family came from Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire. Much of my information comes from a book put together in 1879 (Douglas, Charles Henry James, A collection of family records, Providence: E.L. Freeman & Co., 1879.)  Other information we have is summarized below:

 

DEACON WILLIAM DOUGLAS, the immigrant ancestor, was b. 9th August, 1610,doubtless in Scotland ; m. probably about 1636, Ann MATTLE, dau. of Thomas MATTLE of Ringstead, England. In 1640, with his wife Ann and two children, Ann and Robert, William DOUGLAS went to New England. Tradition says that they landed at Cape Ann. They settled first in Gloucester, but removed within [p.1 88] the year to Boston, where he is first mentioned in the Boston records on 31st June, 1640 , when he was made a Freeman. Here moved shortly to Ipswich where he was entitled to a share of the public land, 28th February, 1641. There he remained for about four years,returning to Boston in 1645. He was a cooper by trade and on 1st May,1646, there is record of his purchasing from Walter MERRY and Thomas ANCHOR, a dwelling house, shop and land. Later he went to New London, Connecticut, and obtained considerable property through purchase and grants from the town. One of his farms was inherited by his son William and has remained in the hands of descendants for over two centuries. In 1662-1663 he was appointed one of the Appraisers of Property for the town of New London. The land for a new church was purchased from him and the graveyard still remains on that place. He and Mr. WILLERBY were appointed to deliver provisions to Commissary TRACY at Norwich during King Philip's War. His education for the times was liberal. He held many important offices in the town at different times. He was Deputy to the General Court in 1672 and once or twice later. In May, 1670, his wife, then sixty years old made a journey to Boston to establish her claim as heir to her father's property. She d. in New London in 1685 and William DOUGLAS himself d. there on 26th July, 1682
-per Colonial families of the United States of America
(as quoted in Descendants of Robert Douglas, (Link updated 19 August 2014) http://www.reocities.com/c_igl/douglas.html

 

I look forward to compiling information here to sort out what everyone knows and hopefully resolve this roadblock once and for all.

See also this discussion: 
https://douglashistory.ning.com/group/descendantsofdeaconwilliamdou...

[Michael P Mccann]

William the info comes from a desendant of daniel wetherall douglas born  14 Apr 1794 in New London, New London, CT. He died in 1868 in Houghton, Houghton, Mi who's father was daniel douglas son of Robert douglas and sarah edgecomb who's father was thomas douglas who's father was robert who was son of william 1610 so I dunno just throwing it out there... But I see your logic 

[Allyson Hawkins]

Hello all!! I have done my DNA through ancestry and would love to prove I'm related to William...ideas? My internet research says I'm liked via:

William Douglass b 1610
William Douglass Jr
Capt Richard Douglass
William Douglass
Capt William Douglass II
Richard Douglass
Jonathan Douglass
Eli Douglass
Rhoda May Douglas
Letty May Tubbs
Roger Tate
Caroline Tate
(Me) Allyson Hawkins

[Evan J Andriopoulos]

There are actually two Capt. Richard Douglass´s (cousins) from New London,Conn. Richard Douglass (1746-1828) (2 s) and the other has 1 s. Both served throughout the war. Richard (1746-1828) was a cooper, church deacon. We have a page for his house and some background here: https://www.facebook.com/RichardDouglassHouse

[David Andrew Douglas]

I have a William and Archibald in the late 1700 in Boston. Dont know if they might be the decendents of yours. 

[Julie Hornung]

Have you done a yDNA test?   I think they have a sale on right now at FamilyTreeDNA.  

any way... have you run into this book?  It's pretty good  :-)

https://books.google.com/books?id=GidKAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontco... 

[Martin Crowly]

I may be wrong, but check out this link https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LVC1-XQH   and you may be able to follow the family way back and possibly forward as well in some of the lines.