Mr. Archibald Douglas, minister of Salton in East Lothian, was an uncle of John Douglass of Tilwhilly and Inchmarlo. Born around 1641, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1661 and served successively as minister of Douglas, Cavers, Newton, and Newbattle. In 1681, while at Newbattle, he was deprived of his charge for refusing the Test. Three years later, in 1684, he was appointed minister of Salton, where the future historian of the Reformation and Bishop of Salisbury had recently served. He married
Janet Carmichael in 1694 and died in 1696.
Their son, Archibald Douglas, father of the future Bishop, became a merchant in Pittenweem, Fife. By the time of his death in 1743 he held the post of Waggon-Master General to the British Forces with the rank of Captain, and was Master of the British Coffee House in Cockspur Street, London
- positions fully consistent with his social standing. His wife, Isobel Melvill, was a daughter of Robert Melvill of Carskierdo, who represented Cupar in the Scottish Parliament at the Revolution.
Their second son, John Douglas, was born at Pittenweem on 14 July 1721. Educated at the Grammar School of Dunbar, he entered St Mary’s College, Oxford, in 1736, graduating BA in 1741. In 1744 he was appointed Chaplain to the 3rd Foot Guards and was present at the Battle of Fontenoy. Returning to Oxford in 1745, he was elected an Exhibitioner on Snell’s Foundation. His first clerical post was the curacy of Tilehurst near Reading.
Douglas’s later career was distinguished. He became a Canon of Windsor in 1762; a Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies in 1778; Bishop of Carlisle in 1787; Dean of Windsor in 1788; and, in 1792, Bishop of Salisbury. He was also a member of the Literary Club founded by Dr Samuel Johnson. He died on 18 May 1807. He married twice: first to Dorothea Pershouse, and secondly to Elizabeth Rooke, mother of his son and daughter. Elizabeth was the daughter of Brudenell Rice Rooke, nephew of Admiral Sir George Rooke, renowned for his service under William and Mary.
Bishop Douglas’s writings were numerous. Though he contributed to many works without claiming credit, he is best known for
A Defence of Milton against the Charge of Plagiarism and A Refutation of Hume’s Attack on the Credibility of Our Lord’s Miracles. In the latter he wrote that, although he might fail to convince Hume, the exercise had strengthened his own faith by revealing more clearly the insufficiency of Hume’s objections and the firm evidential foundation of Christianity.
He was the author of the text of the memorial to
Professor Alexander Douglas.
The Bishop’s son, the Rev. William Douglas, served as Canon Residentiary of Salisbury, Prebendary of Westminster, and Vicar of Gillingham. Born in 1769, he died on 19 March 1819. The Salisbury and Winchester Journal described him as eloquent, energetic, widely informed, frank, sincere, hospitable, generous, and ever ready to relieve distress. He married a daughter of the Baron and Baroness de Brackel of Yverdun in Switzerland and had two sons and three daughters. The only surviving son was William Douglas of Lansdowne House, Bath, who married twice and had three sons and four daughters.
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