Lieutenant-General James Douglas (1645–1691), younger brother of the
Duke of Queensberry, was a
Scottish military officer, who served as MP for Peeblesshire in the 1685
to 1686 Parliament of Scotland.
From 1672 to 1684, he served in
the French army and the Dutch Scots Brigade, before being appointed
Commander in Chief for Scotland by James II. After James was replaced by
William III in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, he held a number
of senior commands in the 1689–1691 Williamite War in Ireland. He was
transferred to the Low Countries in late 1690 to serve in the Nine Years
War, and died of fever at Namur in 1691.
Family
James Douglas was the second son of
James Douglas, 2nd Earl of
Queensberry (c. 1610 – 1671) and his wife Lady Margaret Stewart. The
Earl signed the 1638 National Covenant, but took little part in the
1639–1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms; arrested in 1645 for attempting to
join Montrose's Royalist campaign, he was released after paying a fine.
The Douglas family largely retained its position and estates through the
various changes of regime in the 17th century.
He married Anna
Hamilton and they had two sons, James and William. James received a
commission in his father's regiment in 1688 but resigned in October 1691
and died in 1700; William died in 1712.
Career
As a result
of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, many in both Scotland and England
viewed standing armies as a threat to individual liberty and society
itself. Those who wanted a military career joined units in foreign
service, such as the Dutch Scots Brigade; loyalties were often based on
religion or personal relationships, with officers moving between armies.
Douglas' younger brother John (1647–1675) was killed at Trier with the
French army, while Robert (1650-1676) died serving with the Dutch at
Maastricht.
In the 1670 Secret Treaty of Dover, Charles II signed
an alliance with Louis XIV agreeing to a joint war against the Dutch
Republic. Charles also undertook to supply the French army with a
brigade of 6,000 men; in a secret provision not revealed until 1771,
Louis agreed to pay him £230,000 per year for this. On the outbreak of
the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672, a related conflict of the wider
Franco-Dutch War, Douglas was appointed captain in a regiment commanded
by William Lockhart of Lee intended as part of the expeditionary force
for a proposed landing in the Dutch Republic. When this plan was
cancelled in 1673, Lockhart's unit was incorporated into the British
brigade fighting in the Rhineland under the command of the Duke of
Monmouth, Charles' illegitimate son.
However, the alliance with
Catholic France was deeply unpopular and England withdrew from the war
with the 1674 Treaty of Westminster. Despite this, the Franco-Dutch War
continued and to keep his French subsidies, Charles encouraged members
of the Brigade to remain in French service, although many enrolled in
the Dutch Scots Brigade, including Douglas and a fellow officer from
Lockhart's Regiment, John Graham, later Viscount Dundee. The Scots
Brigade normally contained several English regiments, which had been
withdrawn in 1672 then restored in 1674. One of these was Colyear's
Regiment, which Douglas joined along with his brother Robert; he took
part in the 1676 recapture of Maastricht, where Robert was killed. By
1678, he was lieutenant colonel, being wounded and taken prisoner at the
battle of Saint-Denis in August 1678, shortly before the war ended.
After Colyear died in March 1680, he was promoted Colonel in his place.
2 August, 1685:
‘I James Baird ane of the serjants to Collonell [James]
Douglas his oune companie [of Foot Guards] grant me to have
receaved out of the Tolbuith of Edinburgh from My John Vanss
and Arthure Vdney masters of the said Tolbuith the persons
of William Jacksone William Cunynghame John Muirhead
prisoners there conforme to ane ordor from his Maties privie
Councill direct to Mr George Scott of Pitlochie who hes
ordor from his Maties privie Councill to receave them and
transport them to the fiorringe plantations and in respect
the said Mr George Scott is not present at the recept of the
said persons Therfor I bind and obleis me to procure ane
recept from the said Mr George and lykwayes to warrand the
Magistrats of Edr and Keepers of the said Tolbuith of all
hazard that they or aither of them shall happen to sustaine
through their said liberation
As witnes my hand att Edr the 22 day of August 1685 befor
thir witnesss John Blaikie servant there and Mr Thomas Gow
wryter heirof and syrvant in the said tolbuith
Sic Sub James Baird J Blaikie witnes’ (Book of the Old
Edinburgh Club, XII, 174.) |
| Receipt for prisoners on behalf of
Col. James Douglas |
Douglas was in Scotland during the 1679 Covenanter rebellion, and
took part in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge that ended it. As a reward,
he was granted the lands of Patrick Murdock of Cumloden, one of those
convicted for their participation, later confirmed in April 1685.
In 1685, he was in charge of a party of 'Highlanders' who came upon a
group of Covenanters on what became known as
Martyr's Moss who were shot
down. Scottish politics was dominated by Douglas' elder brother, the Marquess
of Queensberry, who was appointed Treasurer of Scotland in 1682. To
offset his rival Dundee, who was effectively acting as military
commander in Scotland, Queensberry needed a reliable subordinate; in
June 1684, he persuaded the Earl of Linlithgow to step aside as Colonel
of the Scots Guards in favour of his younger brother, who now returned
to Scotland permanently.
When James II succeeded his brother
Charles in February 1685, Douglas was elected MP for Peeblesshire in the
new Parliament of Scotland. He played an active role in suppressing the
June 1685 Argyll's Rising; the Tweedsmuir cemetery contains a memorial
to John Hunter, cruelly murdered at Core Head by Col. James Douglas and
his party for his adherence to the Word of God and Scotland’s Covenanted
Work of Reformation 1685. In October, William Drummond, Viscount
Strathallan was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Scotland, with Douglas as
Master-General of the Ordnance. Douglas took over when Strathallan died
in March 1688 but it is not clear whether he was ever officially
appointed Commander-in-chief and operational control was largely
exercised by Dundee.
In 1685, many in both England and Scotland supported
James despite his personal Catholicism from fear of civil war if he were
bypassed; by July 1688, anti-Catholic riots made it seem only his
removal could prevent one. Just before the 1688 Glorious Revolution, the
Scottish army was brought south to join the rest of James' forces in
England. After William III of England landed in Brixham on 5 November,
his troops deserted and he went into exile on 23 December. When James II
invaded Ireland in March 1689, Douglas joined the army in Ireland and
was formally replaced as Commander in Scotland by Sir Hugh Mackay,
another former colleague.
He commanded a brigade at the Battle of
the Boyne in July 1690, and supervised the unsuccessful Siege of Athlone,
whose failure William considered a missed opportunity to end the war in
Ireland. He felt this was partially due to conflict between Douglas and
two other senior British officers, Percy Kirke and Sir John Lanier. As a
result, in May 1691 they were posted to the Low Countries to serve in
the Nine Years War, where they could be supervised by William himself.
James Douglas, of the Scots army, `was charged with mutinying because he
spoke freely about the soldiers being abused for want of pay and other
necessaries’. All three died within a year, Kirke of disease at Brussels in October
1691, Lanier at Steenkerque in August 1692, while Douglas died at Namur
in July 1691. He was succeeded as Colonel of the Scots Guards by George
Ramsay, another former Scots Brigade colleague.
For more on
'The Covenanting Times', see the articles in the directory below.
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