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Charles Joseph de Douglas, K.S.L., Capt. Royal Scots, Premier Conseiller
du Corps de la Noblesse des Provinces de Bugey et Valromey [said to have
been a descendant in the 12th degree (?century) from Archibald, Earl of
Douglas, and presumably son and h. of the Count of Douglas, Col. of the
Languedoc Regt., K.S.L., who d. at Douai 29 Mar. 1748, aged 44], was
LORD COUNT OF MOUNT REAL (SEIGNEUR COMTE DE MONT-REAL) in Bugey.
Son of Charles, Comte de Douglas, 1689-1750 and Marie de Lilia,
1692-1731
He had three brothers, Capt. Joseph Marie de Douglas,
Royal Scots, K.S.L. ; Francis Prosper de Douglas, K.S.L., Capt.
Languedoc Regt., who m. 1737 Frances Charlotte de la Corme,
granddaughter of the Governor of Mount-Real in Canada, and had issue
Louis Archibald and Charles Luke; and the Rev. Peter Valentine de
Douglas, Deputy to the General Assembly of the French Clergy 1762, and
afterwards Archdeacon and Vicar-General of Auch.
He is said to
have died without an heir.
Translation: Charles Joseph and
Joseph-Marie Chevalier said Douglas belong to an ancient family of
Scottish descent, came from Picardy and installed in the Bugey since the
seventeenth century. Son of Charles Douglas, trustee of the nobility of
Bugey and Marie Lilia, they were born in Montreal near Nantua, as is
their brother François-Prosper Douglas. The three brothers served in the
regiment of Languedoc. Joseph-Marie enters in 1739 as a cadet before
moving to the bodyguards of Villeroy. The elder Charles Joseph enters as
a cadet in 1740, became a second lieutenant in 1742 and lieutenant in
1744. François-Prosper is a second lieutenant in 1743, lieutenant in
1744 and in 1746 became captain of a company in the 2nd battalion.
Charles Joseph and Marie Joseph pursue their career in the Royal Scots,
one as second captain in 1744 and the other as a lieutenant. Both were
captured in 1746 after the Battle of Culloden. Charles-Joseph becomes
captain of a company in 1748 when his brother became first mate the
previous year. In 1751 Charles Joseph abandons his company to his
brother who becomes captain, and was appointed Governor of Saint-Claude
in 1751
Inscription on a plaque in église Saint-Maurice,
Montréal-la-Cluse;
Here lies the high and mighty lord, Sir Charles
Sosne, Count of Douglas, Knight, Count of the Mandement of Montreal,
Lord of Saint Martin, Condamine Martignat, and Knight of the Order of
Saint Louis, Captain commanding the Royal Scots Regiment, General Syndic
of the Nobility of Bugey. He passed away in Nantua at the age of 67 and
was transferred to this church on the 22nd […] 1788.
Coat of
Arms:
The coat of arms features the arms of Douglas on the right and
possibly Crues on the left (gold with a pale charged with three
crosses). The shield is supported on the left by a lion and on the right
by a wild man. It is surmounted by a marquis’s crown and a banner with
the motto “Jamais arrière” (Never behind), the motto of the Douglas
family.
"The Mississippi Bubble," the great
French colonization scheme, financed and exploited in Paris (1717-1720),
by John Law of Lauriston, an Edinburgh jeweller, with its tragical
collapse, senl many Scots into French Canada, exiles of the Jacobite
rebellion of 1715. These Scots settled chiefly in the St. Lawrence
valley, intermarried with the French settlers and left a lasting impress
upon the language and people of French Canada. We find a Charles Joseph
Douglas, ('mute et Seigneur de Montreal, a prisoner after Culloden; and
Chevalier Johnstone, also a refugee after Culloden, mentions a French
post at Sillery in command of another Douglas. .Johnstone was the son of
an Edinburgh merchant, a captain in the army of Prince Charles Edward
Stewart, who escaped to Holland, entered the service of France, and
sailed from Roche fort in 174* with other Scottish exiles as [?] troops
for Cape Breton Island. His diaries of the sieges of Louisbourg and
Quebec are most interesting and valuable. How thoroughly these early
Scots were absorbed, and yet how native traditions persisted is cited by
John .Murray Gibbon, who remarks that French Canadian villages, where
little or no English is spoken, on gala occasions have been known to
turn ou1 in kilts led by bagpipes; he also refers to the astonishment of
the early Highland soldiers and settlers at being addressed with Gaelic
words by the Canadian French.
Comment:
• Not listed as a brother is
Alexandre-Pierre de Mackensie-Douglas or Mackenzie-Douglas, baron de Kildin,
the French spy/diplomat. But it is possible he was.
Notes:
1. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Auch-Condom-Lectoure-Lombez,
more commonly known as the Archdiocese of Auch, is an archdiocese of the
Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese now
comprises the department of Gers in south-west France.
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See also:
•
The Douglas family in France
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