John Douglas
14 July 1721 -
18 May 1807

Family

John Douglas was the second son of Archibald, a merchant of Pittenweem, Fifeshire, and the grandson of an episcopal clergyman of Scotland. Douglas was briefly married, in 1752, to Dorothy Pershore of Reynolds Hall, Staffordshire, who died three months after marriage. In 1765 he married Elizabeth Rooke.

Education

Douglas was educated at Dunbar until his entrance, in 1736, as a commoner at St. Mary Hall, Oxford. Two years later he was elected to a Warner exhibition at Balliol. He graduated B.A. in 1740 and M.A. in 1743. He was elected to a Snell exhibition at Balliol in late 1745. He took his D.D. in 1758.

Church Appointments and Service

He was ordained deacon in 1744 and appointed chaplain to the 3rd regiment of foot guards. He served the army at the battle of Fontenoy, 29 April 1745, before leaving the chaplaincy later that year. In 1747 he was ordained priest, and after serving for two years as a curate and tutor, was presented by his patron, Lord Bath, to the free chapel of Eaton Constantine. In 1750 he was made vicar of High Ercall, Shropshire. In 1758 Lord Bath presented Douglas to the perpetual curacy of Kenley, Shropshire, to which was added, four years later, a canonry at Windsor. In 1761 Douglas exchanged his Shropshire livings for the rectory of St. Augustine and St. Faith in London. In 1777 he exchanged his canonry at Windsor for one at St. Paul's. In September 1787 he was appointed bishop of Carlisle, and in the following year, dean of Windsor. In 1791 he was translated to Salisbury.

Noteworthy Publications

In a pamphlet of 1751, Douglas vindicated John Milton from a spurious charge of forgery. In the following year, Douglas, in a book titled The Criterion attacked Hume's argument on miracles. In 1755 he published an Apology for the Clergy in opposition to the Hutchinsonians. Under his patron's direction, Douglas wrote various political pamphlets. In 1763 he published an edition of Lord Clarendon's Diary and Letters with a preface, and in the following decade edited the Journals of Captain Cook.

Footnote

"Though not above the standard of his day in regard to clerical duties, he was amiable, sociable, and generally respected." -- DNB 5: 1242-43