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William Domini Douglas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Domini has emerged as a distinct yDNA line in the Douglas family. Domini was thought to be an illegitimate son of George (13th or 15th Earl of Morton), and half brother of James (14th or 16th Earl). However his DNA type does NOT match James’s son John. This has been proven by testing two men who are descended from John (5th cousins once removed), and finding that they match. This proves John’s genetic type. Similarly 2 descendants of Domini have proven his haplogroup.

So we can say with confidence now that either Domini or James or John is not descended genetically from George. And since Domini’s genetic type is distinctively Irish (and his mother was Irish) it is likely that Domini has an Irish male ancestor, possibly his father.

 

"Dominie Douglas was born at or near Belfast in Ireland, 2 May 1732. His parents were of Scotch decent and undoubtedly belonged to higher class of society as Dominie well remembered that his father was a man of some distinction; had horses and servants and kept up an expensive establishment. But both his parents died when Dominie was only six or seven years old leaving him to care of an elder brother who was then an adult, who for motives unknown whether good or bad cannot now be known , placed Dominie board a merchant vessel when he was about eight years old, providing him extremely well with clothing suitable for a gentleman's child.

 

"The captain of the vessel made much of him. They sailed to Holland and thence to America--Rhode Island at Providence near which the captain left Dominie with orders to have him kept at school until the captain should return, providing for his support and schooling for several months. But the captain never return nor did Dominie ever hear from him or of his Irish relation afterwards. In those days a voyage to Europe was a great undertaking and an intercourse by letters or otherwise was a great undertaking.

 

"The lad was kept at school for some time after the funds left were exhausted. When no claim being made for him nor any thing heard from the captain or his other friends, little Dominie was bound apprentice by the town authorities to a farmer by the name of Wheaton in Seabank, Massachusetts.

"In this family he grew up to manhood after which he served several campaigns as a volunteer in the Old French War. Returning at the close of the war from the northern frontier , he stooped at New Milford, Connecticut where he became acquainted with Mary Warner whom he married May 5, 1760. This Mary Warner was a good and most amiable grandmother. She was the daughter of Joseph Warner of New Milford, then deceased, and of Sarah, his wife. She was born at New Milford December 10, 1743. Her father died eleven days after her birth. Her mother remained a widow and died when Mary was about thirteen or fourteen years old.

 

"Dominie and Mary settled on a farm three or four miles south of the present village of New Milford Church where they remained about 26 years, (though, I believe, not quite all t hat time on that farm.) there, all their child were born.

 

"Grandfather Douglas served a number of campaigns as a militia, man in the Revolutionary War. (Dominie Douglas served in the Revolutionary War as a private in Captain John St. John's Company, 5th Connecticut Regiment commanded by Colonel Philip B. Bradley. He enlisted July 1, 1780 and was discharged December 27, 1780. (This was copied from records of t he War Department, Washington D.C.)

 

"In the course of that war he lost nearly all his property by selling his land for Continental bills which soon depreciated to almost nothing. I saw some of those old bills in his old pocketbook. When I ( Laura Hubble Dobell) was a child in 1785 or '86, they moved with most of their children to Shoreham, Vermont where Grandfather Douglas purchased a new farm of wild land and with the aid if his sons, cleared it up. On this farm he reminded , with a short exception , until his death at the age of seventy-five on 4th of April, 1807.

 

"Grandmother Douglas married a second husband, David Cutting , of Orville, the Grandfather of Azariah Cutting Flaggso long known as a comptroller of the state of New York, with whom she lived until her decease 1 March 1819. Her second husband, survived her many years and died December 31, 1833 at the age of ninety-one years of age.

 

"Dominie and Mary lie side by side in the small burying ground in the south part of Shoreham, Vermont. A double stone marks the place of their repose. Inscribed on the stone are these words -- "In memory of Dominie who died April 4, 1807, Age 75 years and Mary, Wife of Dominie Douglas and afterwards Wife of David Cutting, Died March..."

 

 

 

See also:
• Dominie's gravestone

• Research by Larry Overmire