Seeking the Lost Douglas: An Investigation into John Douglas (d. 1759) and the Plains of Abraham Tradition

[William Douglas]

For many families with deep eighteenth‑century roots, the Seven Years’ War—and especially the Battle of the Plains of Abraham—has become a magnet for tradition, memory, and sometimes myth. The Douglas family is no exception. Over the years, various accounts have linked one or more Douglases to Wolfe’s famous victory outside Quebec in 1759. Yet when we turn to the surviving records, the picture becomes far more complicated.

This article sets out what we can say with confidence, what remains uncertain, and where further community knowledge may help fill the gaps.

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1. The Enigma of John Douglas (d. 1759)

Among the sons of Sir John Douglas of Kelhead, one figure stands out not for what is known about him, but for what is missing.

While his brothers—

• William, MP and later baronet,
• Charles, an army officer, and
• Stair, a well‑documented Royal Navy captain—
  all appear in the usual public records, John Douglas does not.

What the records do not show

John is absent from:

• parliamentary papers
• naval lists
• army commissions
• university registers
• legal directories
• Jacobite correspondence involving his father and uncles
• the Boswell papers, which mention the Kelhead household but only refer to surviving sons

This silence is striking. In an era when younger sons of gentry families typically entered the army, navy, church, or law, John appears in none of these pathways.

What we can infer

The most plausible explanation is that John died young, likely in his late teens or early twenties. His death in 1759—before his father’s political difficulties and long before the family’s later prominence—would explain why he left no public footprint. His unmarried status and lack of any recorded profession reinforce the impression of a life cut short before adulthood’s usual milestones.

But did he die at home? Abroad? In military service? This is where tradition and documentation begin to diverge.

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2. The Plains of Abraham: Sorting Tradition from Evidence

Family lore has long connected a Captain William James Douglas (born 1733) to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. The Douglas Archives even note him as having died there. Yet historians have repeatedly pointed out that:

• No British Army list records a Captain William James Douglas in 1759.
• No officer of that name appears in the Quebec campaign orders of battle.
• No casualty list includes him.

This raises the possibility that the story may be:

• an unverified family tradition,
• a later embellishment, or
• a confusion with another Douglas entirely.

The Connecticut William Douglas

Complicating matters further is William Douglas of Connecticut, a colonial soldier who served as an orderly sergeant under Israel Putnam during the 1759 expedition. He survived the war and later became a Colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
He is clearly not the man said to have died at Quebec, yet his presence in the same campaign may have contributed to later conflation.

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3. Lieutenant John Douglas of the 78th Fraser’s Highlanders: A False Trail?

Some accounts identify Lieutenant John Douglas of the 78th (Fraser’s) Highlanders as the only Douglas casualty on the British side at the Plains of Abraham, allegedly dying of a gunshot wound to the arm.

This would neatly explain the disappearance of Sir John’s son John in 1759.

However, the evidence does not support this identification.

What the records show

• The 78th Fraser’s Highlanders kept unusually complete officer rolls.
• No officer named Lieutenant John Douglas appears in any of them.
• Several privates named Douglas served in the regiment, including at least one John Douglas, but their individual fates are not always recorded.
• No contemporary casualty list names a Douglas officer killed or wounded on 13 September 1759.

What this means

It is entirely possible that:

• a private named John Douglas died during the Quebec campaign,
• and that later retellings elevated him to officer rank,
• or that his story became entangled with the Kelhead family’s own John Douglas, who died the same year.

But at present, no documentary evidence confirms that any Douglas officer fell at the Plains of Abraham.

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4. Where the Investigation Stands

We are left with three overlapping but unverified traditions:

1. A Kelhead son, John Douglas, died in 1759—but with no record of military service.
2. A supposed Captain William James Douglas died at Quebec—yet no such officer appears in British records.
3. A Lieutenant John Douglas of the 78th died at the Plains—yet the regiment’s rolls list no such officer.

The only firm facts are:

• John Douglas of Kelhead died young in 1759.
• Several Douglases served in the 78th, but none as officers.
• Only one Douglas casualty is sometimes mentioned in secondary accounts, but without primary documentation.

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5. A Call for Community Insight

This is where the Douglas Archives community excels. We are seeking:

• parish burial entries for John Douglas (d. 1759)
• letters or estate papers from Kelhead mentioning his death
• muster roll extracts for the 78th naming privates Douglas
• colonial records that might clarify the Connecticut William Douglas’s movements
• any family papers referencing a Douglas death at Quebec

Even fragments—marginal notes, family Bible entries, local tradition—may help untangle these overlapping stories.

If you hold any information, however small, please share it. The goal is not to confirm a cherished legend or dismiss it, but to reconstruct the most accurate account possible of a young Douglas whose life ended before it could leave a clear mark on the historical record.

[William Douglas]

Contributed:

In 1754, Scotsman John Douglas began his military service in North America as an officer with the 44th Regiment of Foot. He was present for the British defeat at Braddock’s Field in 1755. By June 18, 1757, he was appointed as a Lieutenant in the 78th Regiment of Foot, known as Fraser’s Highlanders, while the unit was in Cork, Ireland. He arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on August 24, 1757, and later served at Fort Stanwix during the winter of 1758–1759.

During this period, his daughter Jane Douglas was born on Cape Breton Island in June 1758. Her mother, who is believed to have been a French Acadian, died during the birth. John Douglas continued his service until the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759, where he was wounded in the arm. He died from his wounds on July 9, 1760.

Following her father's death, the two-year-old Jane was taken to Quebec and raised by the family of Henry Gouldrup. In 1768, she moved with the Gouldrups to Isle St. John (now Prince Edward Island). Jane married three times: first to Thomas Condon Mellish in 1774, then to George Greatoe, and finally to John Burhoe in 1787.

Jane and John Burhoe lived on a land grant at York River before moving to a farm at Squaw Bay in 1792. Jane Douglas lived to be 96 years old, passing away in 1854. At the time of her death, she had 13 children and over 270 direct descendants residing in the Maritime region.