Douglas, James (Rev ) ^151,154

  General Notes:

Baptised at St. George's, Hanover Square on the 17th January 1753.

Third and youngest son of John Douglas of St. George's, Hanover Square. He was placed early in life, with an eminent manufacturer at Middleton, Lancashire, near the seat of Sir Aston Lever, who was forming his famous museum. Instead of attending to business, he assisted Sir Aston in stuffing birds, and was removed to a military college in Flanders where he gained a reputation by translating a French work on fortifications. Another account, however, states that he was employed by his brother abroad as an agent for the business and was left without resources in consequence of some misconduct.

He afterwards entered the Austrian Army as a cadet, and, at Vienna became acquainted with Baron Trenk. Being sent by Prince John of Liechtenstein to purchase horses in England for Turkey, he jocularly observed that he thought his head grinning on the gates of Constantinople would not be a very becoming sight. He did not therefore return and exchanged the Austrian Army for the British service.

He obtained a commission in the Leicestershire Militia during the heat of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars which began in 1793 and continued until Napoleon's fourth and final defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

Leaving the army, he determined to take Orders and entered Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is said to have taken an MA degree, but his name does not appear in Graduate Cantabrigenses.

In January 1780, he married Margaret, daughter of John Oldershaw of Rochester. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and entered Holy Orders.

The early part of his Ministry was at Chiddingfold, Sussex. On the 17th November 1787, he was instituted to the Rectory of Lichborough, Northants, on the representation of Sir William Addington, and towards the close of that year, he was appointed one of the Prince of Wales' chaplains. (Prince Regent).

He resigned Litchborough in 1799 on being presented by the Lord Chancellor, through the recommendation of the Earl of Egremont, to the rectory of Middleton, Sussex.

In 1803 he was presented by Lord Henicker to the Vicarage of Kenton, Suffolk. The closing years of his life were spent at Preston, near Brighton, where he died and where his tomb can be seen today.

In 1797 he contributed to Nicholls, Leicestershire, a delicate plate of Coston Church, engraved by himself. He also engraved the well-known portrait of Francis Gosse, the antiquarian.

His known works are:-
1. General essay on military tactics with an introductory discourse, etc., a translation from the French of J.A.H. Guiloux. ? 2 vols. London, 1781.
2. At the British Museum. Travelling anecdotes through various parts of Europe. In two volumes and written much in the manner of Sterne and illustrated with characters and humorous plates draewn and etched by the author.
3. Dissertation on the antiquity of the Earth.
4. Two dissertations on the brass instruments called "Celts". These are pre-historic implements of stone and bronze which were used for digging.
5. Nenia Britannica. His own copy containing his original water colour drawings is in the British Museum.
6. On the Urbs Rutopae of Ptclomy.
7. Discourses on the influence of Christian religion on civil society. London 1792.

From "Man of many Talents" p 159. "There was a difference between Chiddingfold, where he had worked equally hard, and Preston: that whereas at the former he had
to be content with more than a fair share of paupers, at Preston he ministered also to troops and to the nearby barracks, where among the Hussars, Lancers and Dragoons he must, remembering his own early love of the cavalry, have felt particularly well at ease. Not only did he marry the troopers and baptise their frequent children; his official rank and good offices still combined to procure a team of army labour when he felt fit to make a ranscak of downland barrows (ie achaeological dig).

As for his own mount, it is said that to have been a white pony which he occasionally painted with spots and touches of lemon colour, brown and other tints. But genius must have some eccentricities, as Mark Anthony Lower said of him in The Worthies of Sussex published in 1865, and indeed harmless eccentricities of dress and turnout were then accounted as marks of distinction.

Old inhabitants were later to remember him as a man of simple habits, popular and unaffected manners. Gone were the days when his ardent imagination and brilliant powers of conversation were said to be the admiration of all who knew him and the lively manner in which he put forward his antiquarian speculations commended for a captivating interest. His antiquarian writings now displayed, in an easy and flowing style, a train of thought and reasoning which carried conviction; so wrote Horsfield in his well known History of Sussex published in 1835, only 16 years after Douglas's death."

He died in the extreme cold of November 1819... in the vicarage house at Preston at the age of 66. A simple tombstone above a vault on the south west side of the church yard records the date and that of his wife Margaret who at the age of 60 outlived him scarcely 6 months.

His burial record reads as follows:

"14 Nov 1819 James Douglas clerk, FAS formerly Peter House, Cambridge. Vicar of Kenton, Suffolk, Rector of Middleton, Sussex, Chaplain to HRH the Prince Regent and Curate of this Parish. Age 66."

^{154,198,202,203}

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Chaplain to King George the 4th of England and vicar of William Tell Chapel. ¹²

• Education: Manchester, Military College. ¹⁹⁸

James married Margaret Oldershaw, daughter of Dr. (MD) James (Or John) OLDERSHAW and Elizabeth Wightman, on 6 Jan 1780 in St. Marylebone ¹⁹⁶.^,197 (Margaret Oldershaw was born on 10 Apr 1760 in Rochester, christened on 10 Apr 1760 in St. Martin's Leicester ²⁰⁴ and died in 1820 ⁹.)