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Clan Douglas

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Date: 3 Aug 2018 [unknown]
Location: Worldwidemap
Surnames/tags: Douglas Scottish_Clans
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Scotland Project > Scottish Clans > Clan Douglas

Contents

Welcome to Clan Douglas

Clan Douglas Team
Team Leader TBA
Team Members Malcolm Clyde, Chris Douglas
Clan Chief: no chief, armigerous clan
Crest: On a chapeau, a green salamander surrounded by fire. crest
Motto: Jamais Arriere (Never behind)
Slogan/War Cry: "A Douglas! A Douglas!"
Region: Lowlands
Historic Seat:
Plant badge: Rue
Pipe music: Dunbarton's Drums 0-40 sec, This was also the Regimental March of the Royal Scots. (There is also a much more well known tune about this Pipe song, also called Dunbarton's Drums) The Earl of Dunbarton this song refers to is Maj. Gen. George Douglas, the 1st Earl.
Gaelic name: Dubhghlas (dark river) from Gaelic dubh "dark" and glais (water, river)

Clan Team

Team Goals

The focus of this team's work is to identify, improve and maintain profiles associated with the Lairds and Chiefs of Clan Douglas together with members bearing the name Douglas, the related families and those recognised as septs of Clan Douglas.

Team To Do List

This list will be developed by the Team. If you are working on a specific task, please list it here:

  • promoting the entries of those bearing the name Douglas on Wikitree.
  • ensuring entries appearing on Wikitree are as accurate as possible, correcting mistakes once spotted.
  • encouraging interest in and study of Clan Douglas.

Septs

Agnew, Blackett, Blacklock, Blackstock, Blackwood, Blalock, Breckinridge, Brown, Brownlee, Cavan, Cavers, Dickey, Drysdale, Forest, Forrester, Foster, Gilpatric, Glendinning, Glenn, Harkness, Inglis, Kidston, Kilgore, Kilpatrick, Kirkland, Kirkpatrick, Lockerby, Lockery, MacGuffey, MacGuffock , McKitrick, Morton, Sandilands, Sandlin, Soule, Sterrett, Symington, Troup, Young

Clan History

The family's surname is derived from the village of Douglas, the name of which comes from the Gaelic elements dubh, meaning "dark, black"; and glas, meaning "stream" (in turn from Old Gaelic dub and glais). One old tradition is that the first chief of Douglas was Sholto Douglas who helped the king of Scotland win a battle in the year 767. This is unsubstantiated and is today considered pseudo-history.

The true progenitor of Clan Douglas was probably "Theobaldus Flammatius" (Theobald the Fleming), who received in 1147 the lands near Douglas Water in Lanarkshire in return for services for the Abbot of Kelso. The first certain record of the name Douglas is that of William de Dufglas who witnessed a charter between 1175 and 1199 by the Bishop of Glasgow to the monks of Kelso.

Although the Douglases were first recorded in the 1170s, the Douglas family names consisted of Arkenbald and Freskin, and were undoubtedly related to the Clan Murray, and to be of Flemish origin. The Clan Murray were descended from a Flemish knight called Freskin. Though the Flemish origin of the Douglases is not undisputed, it is often claimed that the Douglases were descended from a Flemish knight who was granted lands on the Douglas Water by the Abbot of Kelso, who held the barony and lordship of Holydean. However this is disputed, it has been claimed that the lands which were granted to this knight were not the lands which the Douglas family came from.

In 1179 William Douglas was Lord of Douglas and it seems likely that he was Theobald the Fleming's son and the first to take the surname Douglas. His grandson, also Sir William de Douglas had two sons who fought at the Battle of Largs in 1263 against the Norsemen.

Clan Branches

Other Names Associated with the Clan

Dowglass, Dovglas, Dowglas, Dulglas, Douglace, Couglas, Douglass, Dogles, Dowglace, Dulglass, Dulglass, Douglis, Dowglasse, Doubles, Duglas, Douglles, Drysdale, Glen

Name Variations: Dawglas, Dawglass, Dawgless, Dawgliss, Dogles, Douglas, Douglase, Douglass, Dougles, Dougless, Douglis, Dougliss, Douglles, Dowglas, Dubhghlas, Dueglas, Duglas, Duglass, Dugless, Dugliss, Dulglace, Dulglas, Dulglass, Dulgless, Dulgliss, Duueglas

Allied Clans

Clan Hamilton, Clan Carmichael, Clan Kirkpatrick, Clan Forrester, Clan Maxwell (16th century)

Rival Clans

Clan Stewart, Clan Crichton, Clan Gordon, Clan Sandilands, Clan Charteris; Clan Johnstone, Clan Colville, Clan Scott, Clan MacLellan, Clan Ramsay, Clan Maxwell (17th century)

Clan Research and Free Space Pages

Source Material

Image Credits and Acknowledgements

Information found here should be reviewed and moved to additional project pages.

Introduction

Extract from The Great Historic Families of Scotland, By James Taylor, M.A., D.D., F.S.A and published in 1887

In the story of Scotland,’ says Mr. Froude, ‘weakness is nowhere; power, energy, and will are everywhere;’ and this national vigour, determined will, and indomitable resolution seem to have culminated in the ‘Doughty Douglases.’ Their stalwart and tough physical frames, and the strong, resolute, unbending character of such men as ‘William the Hardy,’ ‘Archibald the Grim,’ and ‘Archibald Bell-the-Cat,’ the types of their race, eminently fitted them to be ‘premier peers‘-leaders of men. From the War of Independence down to the era of the Reformation, no other family played such a conspicuous part in the affairs of Scotland as the Douglases. They intermarried no less than eleven times with the royal family of Scotland, and once with that of England. They enjoyed the privilege of leading the van of the Scottish army in battle, of carrying the crown at the coronation of the sovereign, and of giving the first vote in Parliament. ‘A Douglas received the last words of Robert Bruce. A Douglas spoke the epitaph of John Knox. The Douglases were celebrated in the prose of Froissart and the verse of Shakespeare. They have been sung by antique Barbour and by Walter Scott, by the minstrels of Otterburn and by Robert Burns.’ A nameless poet who lived four hundred years ago eulogised their trustiness and chivalry. Holinshed, in the next century, speaks of their ‘singular manhood, noble prowess, and majestic puissance.’ They espoused, at the outset, the patriotic side in the War of Independence, and they contributed greatly to the crowning victory of Bannockburn. They sent two hundred gentlemen of the name, with the heir of their earldom, to die at Flodden. There was a time when they could raise thirty thousand men, and they were for centuries the bulwarks of the Scottish borders against our ‘auld enemies of England.’ They have gathered their laurels on many a bloody field in France, where they held the rank of princes, and in Spain and in the Netherlands, as well as in England and Scotland, and -
'In far landes renownit they have been'
They have produced men not only of ‘doughty’ character, but of the gentle and chivalric type also, like the ‘Good Sir James,’ and the William Douglas who married the Princess Egidia, justifying the exclamation of the author of the ‘Buke of the Howlat ‘-
'O Douglas, Douglas!
Tender and true !'
On the other hand, it cannot be denied that their haughtiness and turbulence and ambition often disturbed the peace of the country, and imperilled the stability of the throne. On the whole, however, setting the good and the evil against each other, it may be said, in lines which were old in the days of Godscroft, and were then, he says, ‘common in men’s mouths ‘-
'So many, so good, as of the Douglases have been,
Of one sirname were ne’er in Scotland seen'

Clan Douglas

The Douglases are an ancient Scottish kindred from the Scottish Lowlands taking their name from Douglas, South Lanarkshire, and from there their chiefs gained vast territories throughout the Scottish Borderland, Angus, Lothian, Moray and France. The Douglases were the most prominent family in lowland Scotland during the Late Middle Ages, often holding the real power behind the throne of the Stewart Kings. The heads of the House of Douglas held the titles of the Earl of Douglas (Black Douglas) and later the Earl of Angus (Red Douglas). The clan does not have a chief recognised by the Lyon Court, so therefore it is now considered an armigerous clan. [1]

The Douglases were considered to be the most influential and powerful of the Lowland families and who at the height of their powers were possibly the greatest family in Scotland. The first record of this name was in 1175 when William de Duglas (pedigree) witnessed a charter by the Bishop of Glasgow to the monks of Kelso. Grants of the land were made to Sir James Douglas one of Robert Bruce's chief lieutenants and famed for his many brave exploits. Unfortunately he was killed by the Moors in Granada, Spain whilst attempting to carry Bruce's heart to the Holyland. His nephew was created Earl of Douglas, later becoming Earl of Mar by marriage. The strength and wealth of the Douglases were a constant threat to the Stewart Kings. At one time they formed an alliance with the English crown and the Lord of the Isles against the Scots crown, the failure of which meant that Lord Douglas had to flee to England. The Black Douglases were thus forfeited in 1455 and Threave Castle was bombarded by the famous cannon, Mons Meg. George, 4th Earl of Angus, chief of the Red Douglases became head of the whole clan. His son, Archibald, "Bell-the Cat", led the nobles rebellion against James III which ended in the defeat and death of the King at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. His grandson also Archibald married Margaret Tudor widow of James IV who had fallen at Flodden. Their daughter, Lady Margaret married the Earl of Lennox, their son Lord Darnley married Mary Queen of Scots and was father of James VI & I. The Douglases continued to play an important role in the life of Scotland throughout the centuries and were ancestors of the Earls of Morton, Douglas, Annandale, Moray, Ormond, Angus and Forfar and the Dukes of Touraine, Queensberry, Buccleuch and Hamilton. It would appear that the senior representative of this house is at present Lord Home (ex-prime minister of Great Britain) but he cannot exercise the chiefship while he is also chief of Home, the heir male is the Duke of Hamilton. [2]

The original caput of the family was Douglas Castle in Lanarkshire. The Kirk of St Bride at Douglas, along with Melrose Abbey and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés holds the remains of many of the Earls of Douglas and Angus. [1]

Titles

Titles that are held or were held by members of the Clan (Incomplete)

Research links:

Useful Links:

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Douglas tartan
Douglas tartan
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