Lord William Douglas

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Lord William Robert Keith Douglas, circa 1855

Lord William Robert Keith Douglas (1783 – 5 December 1859) was a British politician and landowner. He was the fourth son of

Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty. He owned sugar plantation estates in Tobago which had formerly belonged to Walter Irvine, whose daughter, Elizabeth, he married on 24 November 1824. They had three sons,[1] the second of which, Walter, went on to continue the Douglases of Grangemuir. He employed the future missionary Catherine Grant (later Edward) as a governess until 1843.[2]

According to the

Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College London, Douglas was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £1.51 billion in 2024[3]) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore that was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Douglas was associated with three different claims he owned 576 slaves in Tobago and received a £10,907 payment at the time (worth £1.1 million in 2024[3]).[4]

In May 1837, some time after William Douglas's eldest brother succeeded to the Marquessate of Queensberry, he was granted a patent of precedence which gave him the rank and style of a Marquess's younger son (Lord William Douglas).[5]

Lord William is buried at Dunino,

Grangemuir, near Pittenweem.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ thepeerage.com
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49147 https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/49147, retrieved 26 June 2021 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help
    )
  3. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  4. ^ "William Robert Keith Douglas". University College London. Retrieved on 20 March 2019.
  5. ^ Burke's Peerage
  6. ^ Lewis, Samuel (1846). "'Andrew's, St - Arbroath', in A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland". London: British History Online. pp. 45–59. Retrieved 28 May 2020.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Shaw Stewart Heron-Maxwell
 Member of Parliament for Dumfries Burghs
1812–1832 		Succeeded by
Matthew Sharpe


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