William Douglas's Blog (602)

Ian Douglas has been fascinated by Scottish history for over forty years. He has just published a short biography of Mary, “Mary Queen of Scots – a Brief History” and is the author of “Exploring History in the Scottish…

On the tombstone, in St Magnus Cathedral, of George Douglas, who died 1611, and Elizabeth Douglas, his spouse, who died 1630, is a shield bearing :—Quarterly, first and fourth, three piles; second and third, a heart ; over all as many mullets

in fess.

Who was he?

The Douglas family played a significant tole in Orkney in the 17th and 18th centuries,…

Look at who owned this Douglas plate!

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-chinese-export-armorial-porcelain-charger-and-6018488-details.aspx…

It is with sadness I record the death of Jan Shaw, on 10th June.

Jan was for many years to President of the Clan Douglas Association of Australia, and before that the newsletter editor.

Her knowledge of Douglas matters, her support of Douglas heritage and her friendship will be missed by many.

Her funeral service will be at St Mary's Anglican Church,…

You may have noticed strange behaviour with the Douglas Archives database.

There appears to be a problem with my web service provider that is affecting both email and the database. We are working on this. Meanwhile the revised database has wiped the older version, but not replaced it.

Boring!

Yours aye,

William

I am informed that Douglas in Hebrew means "Distinguished Man".

Doogle= distinguished, eesh= man.

Could it be that Douglas came from Danite Celts?

Hard to prove, but an interesting coincidence. Do any of my distinguished friends have any thoughts on this?

And Urban Dictionary has a rather different definition!

I have been offered ephemera relating to Admiral Douglas's house Seafield in Walmer. Would anyone be interested in this?

Admiral Robert Gordon Douglas(1829-1910), descendant of James, 4th Earl of Morton, was the son of Commander John Douglas, JP, RN, and Robina MacDonell. He had at least one son, James Sholto Gordon Douglas, and a daughter Madeline Gordon Douglas.

The…

Prince Henry, KCVO (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984), also known as Prince Harry, is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, and is sixth in the line of succession to the British throne.

Today, 19th May 2018, on the occasion of his…

Sir William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale (circa. 1300-k.1353) was also known as the Knight of Liddesdale and the Flower of Chivalry. He was a Scottish nobleman and soldier active during the Second War of Scottish…

The following helpful guide was contributed by the late Norman Douglas of Dundarroch to a Clan Douglas Association of Australia newsletter some years ago. It bears reprinting.

When searching through records or gravestones in Scotland, it is common to find a person described either 'of', a place or 'in' a place or 'at' a place. These words are of considerable…

Several of the illustrations used in the Douglas Archives were created by Andrew Hillhouse, who died on Sunday 16th April 2018.

Andrew worked as a technician in the School of Landscape Architecture, ESALA, Edinburgh University. He drew, painted and illustrated in his spare time depicting, predominantly but not exclusively, various periods of Scottish…

During a recent short holiday in Seville, I did not expect to see evidence of 'The good' Sir James Douglas, who passed through the city when en-route to the Holy Land, in 1330. As a consequence, I failed to do my research before arriving.

When he was commissioned by the dying King, Robert 'The Bruce', to carry his heart on crusade to the Holy Land, James Douglas gathered around him several noble knights and twenty esquires, among them a son of Sir Roger Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. The…

Lieutenant Commander James Sholto Douglas - a new biography: http://badseysociety.uk/war-memorial-badsey-church-and-biographies-the-men-recorded-thereon/douglas-james-sholto-1889-1916

We offer our congratulations to the following on their appointments:

Member of the Order of the British Empire MBE Member of the Order of the British Empire Mr Grant Jonathan DOUGLAS Founder and Chief Executive Officer, S'up Products Limited. For services to People with Disabilities. Edinburgh

Medallist of the Order of the British Empire BEM Medal of the Order of the British Empire Mrs Theresa Mary DOUGLAS Police Staff, Police Service of Northern Ireland. For services to…

On 10th December 1679, 210 Covenanter prisoners in the Greyfriars Prison destined, with others from the tolbooths, were being transported on board the ill-fated "Crown", which sank off Deerness in the Orkney Isles. Over 200 were drowned.

In 1679, after the Scottish Covenanters' uprising was quashed at the Battle of Bothwell Brig, 1184 prisoners were captured after the…

Experts are examining carvings on an old wooden chair that shows evidence of having been immersed in sea water for some time.

The seat is stored in the Am Fasgadh building at the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore in the Cairngorms.

Thought to date from the 17th or 18th Century, it was given to the museum by a donor from Edinburgh.

On the panel that forms the back of the seat are carved a lion and a unicorn on a crest with a crowned heart…

There is a story circulating that while researching the Vatican archives for a book on the topography of Lowland Scotland, the author Nigel Tranter found a document which stated that John, son of William Lord of Douglas attended a royal council at Scone in 1056. This would be more than 100 years earlier than the previously accepted first Lord of Douglas.  At that time, Macbeth would have been king.

There is the following tradition in regard to the origin of the name. In…