Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/382

 their own bishops without any reference to Rome, and procure their consecration at the hands of any other lawful bishop. It was even proposed by them, after the appointment of Douglass, to pronounce that appointment ‘obnoxious and improper,’ and to refuse to acknowledge it. Dr. Charles Berington, however, addressed a printed letter to the London clergy, resigning every pretension to the London vicariate, and the opposition to Douglass was withdrawn.

He succeeded the Hon. James Talbot, D.D., as vicar-apostolic of the London district. His election by propaganda on 22 Aug. 1790 was approved by the pope on the 26th of that month, and expedited on 1 Sept. His briefs to the see of Centuria in partibus were dated 25 Sept. 1790. He was consecrated 19 Dec. the same year, in St. Mary's Church, Lullworth Castle, Dorsetshire, by Dr. William Gibson, bishop of Acanthus, and vicar-apostolic of the northern district.

The Catholic Relief Act, passed in June 1791, repealed the statutes of recusancy in favour of persons taking the Irish oath of allegiance of 1778. It was Douglass who suggested that this oath should replace the oath which was proposed during the debates on the measure and warmly discussed by the contending parties. The act likewise repealed the oath of supremacy imposed in the reign of William and Mary, as well as various declarations and disabilities; and it tolerated the schools and religious worship of Roman catholics. Douglass was one of the first members of the ‘Roman Catholic Meeting,’ organised in May 1794, in opposition to the Cisalpine Club (, Supplementary Memoirs of English Catholics, p. 201). He seems to have been of a gentle disposition, though he was resolute in matters of principle. He was a determined opponent of the veto, and he severely censured the Blanchardist schismatics. To him St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, owes its existence as an ecclesiastical establishment, in which is preserved the continuity of the English college of St. Omer, through its president, Dr. Gregory Stapleton, settling there with his students at the invitation of Douglass, 15 Aug. 1795, after their liberation from imprisonment during the French revolution. Dr. Milner submitted his ‘Letters to a Prebendary’ to Douglass for revision. Douglass erased nearly one-half of the original contents before sending it back to the author, who printed the work in its curtailed form. Douglass died at his residence in Castle Street, Holborn, on 8 May 1812 (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxxii. pt. i. p. 599). Dr. William Poynter, who had been appointed his coadjutor in 1803, succeeded him in the vicariate-apostolic of the London district.

An account by Douglass of the state of the catholic religion in his vicariate in 1796 is printed in Brady's ‘Episcopal Succession,’ iii. 180 seq. He published some charges and several pastorals, two of which were translated into Spanish. He also for many years published ‘A New Year's Gift’ in the ‘Laity's Directory.’ The volume of that publication issued in 1811 contains an engraved portrait of him, and a bust of him by Turnerelli was executed in the following year.

[Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 178–84, 185, 224, 226; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. of English Catholics; Panzani's Memoirs, 433 n.; Husenbeth's Life of Milner, pp. 29, 213; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, No. 15236; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Amherst's Hist. of Catholic Emancipation, i. 169, 170, 177, 191, 205, ii. 34, 39, 54.]  D'OUVILLY, GEORGE GERBIER (fl. 1661), dramatist and translator, a Dutchman, was a connection of Sir Balthazar Gerbier, baron D'Ouvilly [q. v.], and, like him, was patronised by William, lord Craven. He joined Lord Craven's regiment in the Low Countries, and rose to be a captain. At the Restoration he was residing in London. He wrote an unacted tragi-comedy entitled ‘The False Favourite Disgrac'd, and the Reward of Loyalty,’ 12mo, London, 1657, a play with a well-constructed plot, but of uncouth diction. He also translated some biographies from the French of André Thevet, which, under the title of ‘Prosopagraphia, or some Select Pourtraitures and Lives of Ancient and Modern Illustrious Personages,’ forms the third part of William Lee's edition of North's ‘Plutarch,’ folio, London, 1657. Another performance was ‘Il Trionfo d'Inghilterra overo Racconto et Relatione delle Solennità fatte & osservate nella … Incoronatione … di Carlo Secondo … nel terzo giorno di Maggio, 1661, insieme con la descrittione degl' Archi Trionfali … e altre … dimostrationi d'Allegrezze … nella … Città di Londra … et anco la superba Cavalcata fatta … il giorno innanzi. … Il tutto transportato nella lingua Italiana, per il Capitan Giorgio Gerbieri D'Ouvilly,’ 4to, Venice, 1661.

[Baker's Biog. Dram. (1812), i. 556, ii. 219; Brit. Mus. Cat.] 

DOVASTON, JOHN FREEMAN MILWARD (1782–1854), miscellaneous writer, son of John Dovaston of West Felton, near Oswestry, Shropshire, the name of an estate which had been in the Dovaston family since the reign of Elizabeth, was born on 30 Dec.