Sholto Douglas Viscount Drumlanrig

Queensberry

QUEENSBERRY , earl, marquis, and duke of, titles in the peerage of Scotland, possessed by a branch of the ancient and once dominant family of Douglas, and the latter held, since 1810, by the duke of Buccleuch. The title of earl of Queensberry was conferred in 1633, by Charles I., on Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig, descended from Sir William Douglas, the elder of the two natural sons of James, second earl of Douglas, who was killed at the battle of Otterburn in 1388. The barony of Drumlanrig, in the parish of Durrisdeer, Dumfries-shire, was bestowed upon him by his father by charter, and he was subsequently designated dominus de Drumlanrig. In 1411, Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig and Sir Gavin de Dunbar attacked Roxburgh, then in possession of the English, broke down the bridge, and burnt the town. On 24th September that year, with the earls of Douglas and March, he was a commissioner to treat for a peace with the English. He obtained from King James I. a letter, dated at Croydon, 30th November 1412, confirming to him the lands of Drumlanrig, “Hawyke,” and Selkirk, which is still extant. He had a safe-conduct to come and go to England, to negotiate the release of that monarch, then a captive there, 16th April 1413. Upon various other occasions he had also a safe-conduct to go to England, particularly one on 16th December 1414, to him and six persons chosen by him, attended by eighty horsemen, to go to Carlisle, to perform certain feats of arms before judges, against Sir John de Clifford and six persons of his nomination. In 1420 he accompanied the Scottish auxiliaries to France under the earl of Buchan. He was knighted at the coronation of James I., 21st May 1424, and is said to have been killed in battle against the English in France in 1427. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Stewart of Durrisdeer and Rosyth, he had a son, William Douglas of Drumlanrig, who was one of the hostages for King James I., 9th November 1427, in the room of Sir Adam de Hebburn. In 1448 he was in the army commanded by the earls of Douglas and Ormond, when a sanguinary battle was fought with the English on the banks of the river Sark in Annandale, and the latter were defeated with great slaughter. He died in 1458.

His son, William Douglas of Drumlanrig, distinguished himself at the siege of Roxburgh, where James II. was killed in 1460, and also in December 1462 in the expedition of the earl of Angus to the relief of Alnwick, then held by a French garrison, under Breze, high-steward of Normandy, when he succeeded in bringing them off, in sight of a superior English force, commanded by King Edward IV. in person. He died in 1464. His son, Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig, was killed while fighting on the king’s side against the duke of Albany and the ninth and last earl of Douglas, in the engagement near Lochmaben, when they invaded Scotland 22d July 1484. With three daughters, he had four sons, namely, 1. James, his successor. 2. Archibald, ancestor of the Douglases of Cashogle. 3. George, ancestor of the Douglases of Penziere; and 4. John, vicar of Kirkconnell.

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