Sir William Douglas, 9th Feudal Baron of Drumlanrig was the first earl
of Queensberry.
He had obtained a reversion of the provostry of Lincludden, and after
the death of his granduncle, Robert Douglas, he enjoyed its revenues
during his own life.
He was a member of the General Assembly which met at Glasgow on 8th June
1610, and entertained King James VI, at his house of Drumlanrig, when
his majesty visited Scotland in 1617.
By patent, dated at Whitehall, 1st April 1628, he was created a peer, by
the titles of viscount of Drumlanrig, and Lord Douglas of Hawick and
Tibberis, to him and his heirs male, bearing the name and arms of
Douglas. He got vested in himself and his heirs the patronage and tithes
of the churches of Terregles, Lochrutton, Colvend, Kirkbean, and
Caerlaverock, belonging to the provostry of Lincludden, and also a small
part of its lands.
When Charles I. visited Scotland in 1633, he advanced the viscount of
Drumlanrig to the title of earl of Queensberry, to him and his heirs
male bearing the name and arms of Douglas, by patent, dated at Seton,
13th June of that year. The title was taken from a mountain called
Queensberry, in the parish of Closeburn, Dumfries-shire, having its name
from the Anglo-Saxon berg, a hill, softened into berry. Situated amid a
collection of heights, it is literally the “queen hill” of the district.
His lordship married Isabel, daughter of Mark, first Earl of Lothian,
and had, with two daughters, four sons.
He died 8th March 1640.
Father: James
Douglas, 8th Baron of Drumlanrig
Mother: Mary (of Wigtoun) Fleming b: ABT. 1563
Marriage 1 Isobel
(of Lothian) Kerr
Children
- Hon. Sir William Douglas
of Kelhead
- Margaret (of Queensbury) Douglas = James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Hartfell
- James
Douglas
2nd Earl of Queensbury
- Hon. Archibald
Douglas, father of William of Dornock,
ancestor of the Douglases of Dornock
- Hon. George Douglas, who died unmarried
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