Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/376

 Douglas and other troops under this commission and was present at the battle of Philiphaugh on 13 Sept. 1645. He escaped from the field, but in April 1646 was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, from which he purchased his release in the beginning of 1647, by payment of a fine and by a public acknowledgment of his breach of the covenant before the presbytery, who compelled him to renew his oath to it. When Charles II secured the crown of Scotland by accepting the covenant, Douglas reappeared in public affairs. In 1651 he was present at the parliament of that king at Perth and Stirling, and was appointed one of the committee for the army and also of the committee of estates, but he declined the command of a regiment and returned home. This declinature was made the ground for an application to reduce the fine of 1,000l. which Cromwell imposed on him in 1654. It was reduced to one-third of that sum, a sufficient proof of his insignificance as an opponent. His name does not appear in history during the last nine years of his life. He died, at the age of seventy-one, on 19 Feb. 1660 at Douglas, and was buried in front of the altar of the church. He had been twice married, first to Margaret Hamilton, who died 11 Sept. 1623, and secondly, in 1632, to Lady Mary Gordon, daughter of the Marquis of Huntly, who survived him. He had by his first marriage two sons and three daughters, and by his second marriage three sons and six daughters. Most of his children married into noble families. His elder son by his first wife, Archibald, master of Angus [see, (1609–1655)], predeceased him, and he was succeeded by Archibald's son and his grandson James, second marquis of Douglas [q. v.] The eldest son of the first marquis by his second wife was William, third duke of Hamilton [q. v.] It was at the instance of the father of the first Marquis of Douglas, eleventh Earl of Angus, that David Hume of Godscroft [q. v.] wrote, with the aid of notes the earl had compiled, the ‘History of the House of Douglas,’ which was first published in 1644 by Evan Tayler, ‘printer to the king's most excellent majesty.’ The printed volume ends with the life of the ninth earl, to whom Hume acted as secretary, but a manuscript continuation exists with a dedication to Charles I by the first marquis.

[Sir W. Fraser's Douglas Book and manuscript of Hume of Godscroft's History there quoted.] 

DOUGLAS, WILLIAM, third (1635–1694), eldest son of William, first marquis of Douglas [q. v.], by his second wife, Lady Mary Gordon, was born 24 Dec. 1635. By patent dated 4 Aug. 1646 he was created Earl of Selkirk, Lord Daer and Shortcleuch, with remainder to his heirs male. By Cromwell's act of grace in 1654 he was fined 1,000l. He married, 29 April 1656, Anne, duchess of Hamilton, daughter of the first duke, who on the death of her uncle William, the second duke, succeeded him in the title in virtue of the patent of 1643. At the Restoration, on the petition of his wife, he was created Duke of Hamilton for life and sworn of the privy council. For the first few years after his marriage he devoted himself to the recovery of his wife's family from the heavy debts which they had incurred on the forfeiture of their estates by Cromwell, and it was not until he had retrieved his financial position that he entered on public life. His first appearance in parliament was in 1661, when he argued against the ‘rescissory’ act, the object of which was to annul all the measures of all parliaments that had sat since 1633. He strongly supported Lauderdale in advising delay in the restoration of episcopacy, and later he took up a strong presbyterian attitude, being one of two members who supported the cause of that party when ministers who would not ask for re-presentation to their livings were ejected. In 1667, when a convention of estates was summoned for the purpose of voting money for the king's troops, Hamilton was appointed president by special letter from Charles II. Hitherto Hamilton and Lauderdale had been on the best of terms, but now, whether through the latter's jealousy or, as Burnet (Hist. of his own Time, i. 245, ed. 1724) asserts, on account of the Countess of Dysart's dislike for Hamilton, they became estranged for some years. In 1671 Burnet had completed his memoirs of the first two dukes of Hamilton from papers supplied him by the present duke and duchess, and Lauderdale hearing of it summoned him to stay with him, and made him a prime favourite, his object being, as Burnet declares (ib. i. 298), to engage him ‘to put in a great deal relating to himself’ in the book. Burnet took advantage of his position to induce Lauderdale to make friendly overtures to Hamilton, with the result that an agreement was patched up. Its strength was put to the test in the following year, when strong pressure was put on Hamilton by the Scotch nobility to oppose Lauderdale's land tax of a whole year's assessment. The duke had promised Lauderdale not to oppose taxes in general, but did not consider that he was bound to support him in the present instance. At Lauderdale's request the Marquis of Atholl came to a conference with