Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/303

 1542 he negotiated a reconciliation between his brother and the Governor Arran, and thereafter took a prominent part in connection with the overtures made by Henry VIII for the marriage of Prince Edward and the infant Queen Mary. These, however, were obnoxious to a large number of the Scots, and though Douglas prolonged the negotiations even after they had become hopeless, he could not ward off the displeasure of Henry, who made repeated invasions of Scotland. By many of his own countrymen he was regarded as a traitor, and in 1544 he was a prisoner in the castle of Edinburgh, from which he was only released on Leith being taken by the Earl of Hertford in that year. He repeatedly submitted plans for the guidance of the English generals in their invasions of Scotland, but could never be induced to take an active part with them against his countrymen. Henry was so enraged by this that he ordered his lands to be laid waste. Douglas at this time possessed several castles, including Pinkie and Dalkeith, both of which suffered, and at the capture of the latter his wife and other members of his family were seized.

Douglas married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of David Douglas of Pittendriech, and with her obtained the lands near Elgin which gave him his territorial designation. He was father of David, seventh earl of Angus, and of James Douglas, earl of Morton, better known as the Regent Morton [q. v.] An illegitimate son was George Douglas of Parkhead, who became ancestor of the families of Douglas of Parkhead (lords Carlyle of Torthorwald), of Douglas of Mordington, and of Douglas of Edrington. Douglas died at Elgin in July or August 1552.

[Sadler's State Papers; Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland; Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland; Histories by Lesley, Knox, Buchanan, &c.; Fraser's Douglas Book.]  DOUGLAS, GEORGE,  (1636?–1692), second son of William, first marquis of Douglas, and Lady Mary Gordon, was born in or about 1636. Like two of his elder brothers-german, Lords Archibald and James Douglas, he took service under the French king Louis XIV in his Scottish regiment, of which, on the resignation of his brother Archibald, he was appointed colonel. This regiment was recalled to England about 1675 by Charles II, and embodied in the British army. On 9 March 1675 Charles II conferred on Lord George Douglas the title of Earl of Dumbarton, a nominal peerage, in the strict sense of the word, for his lordship did not at the time own an acre of land in Scotland. After the accession of James II (of England) he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Scottish army, and under his guidance the rising of the Earl of Argyll in 1685 was suppressed. At the revolution he elected to share the fortunes of his dethroned sovereign. He accompanied James II to the continent, and died at St. Germain-en-Laye 20 March 1692. His countess, a sister, it is said, of the Duchess of Northumberland, predeceased him at the same place about a year, and both were buried in the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris. They left a son, George, second earl of Dumbarton, born in April 1687, who attained to high rank in the British army and also in diplomatic service, being ambassador to Russia in 1716. But he died without issue, and his title became extinct. During his father's lifetime the second earl bore the courtesy title of Lord Ettrick, in reference to which James, marquis of Douglas, remarked in a letter, ‘I doe believe he has nothing more in Ettrick than he has in Dumbarton, but only the title.’

[Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland; Bouillart's Hist. de l'Abbaye de Saint Germain-des-Prés; Fraser's Douglas Book.]  DOUGLAS, GEORGE, fourth  (d. 1741), was the only son of James, third baron Mordington, by his wife, Jean Seton, eldest daughter of Alexander, first viscount Kingston. He was the author of ‘The Great Blessing of a Monarchical Government, when fenced about with and bounded by the Laws, and those Laws secured, defended, and observed by the Monarch; also that as a Popish Government is inconsistent with the true happiness of these kingdoms, so great also are the Miseries and Confusions of Anarchy,’ London, 1724. This book, which was dedicated to George I, is a rambling discourse of fifty-two pages on monarchy, patriotism, and first principles generally. In the preface Mordington speaks of his not being ‘insensible that what I sent into the world at two different times about three years since, occasioned by a weekly paper called “The Independent Whig,” created me some enemies,’ referring to two tracts which he had published. The first of these was ‘Aminadab, or the Quaker Vision; a satirical tract in defence of Dr. Sacheverell's Sermon before the Lord Mayor;’ the other ‘A Letter from Lord Mordington to the Lord Archbishop of York, occasioned by a most impious and scandalous weekly paper call'd “The Independent Whig,”’ 1721. It is not easy to believe that either of these 