John Douglas

Glasgow merchant, partner in J, T & A Douglas (q.v.), and probably the John Douglas who was father of the illegitimate man of colour James Douglas (1803-1877), governor of British Columbia. If so, then John Douglas moved back permanently to Scotland in the 1810s, 'where he had another family, one recognised by British law and custom'.

1. Will of John Douglas of Donolly proved 03/06/1841. The will identifies his executors as his brothers Colonel Sir Neill Douglas, Thomas Dunlop Douglas of Blythswood, Archibald Douglas of Glenfi[n]nart and James Douglas merchant in Glasgow, his wife as Janet Hamilton and his children as John, Jane Hamilton Cisilia [sic] and Georgina.

T71/885 British Guiana claim nos. 550 (Pln Better Hope) and 586A (Pln Belmont); T71/887 British Guiana claim no. 2020.

Charlotte S.M. Girard, 'Sir James Douglas' Mother and Grandmother', B.C. Studies No. 44 Winter 1979-80 http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/1036/1074Adele [accessed 20/04/2011]; Adele Perry, 'James Douglas, Canada and Guyana' Stabroek News 04/04/2011 http://www.stabroeknews.com/2011/features/in-the-diaspora/04/04/james-douglas-canada-and-guyana/ [accessed 20/04/2011]; Adele Perry, '"Is your Garden in England, Sir?": James Douglas's Archive and the Politics of Home' , History Workshop Journal 70 (1) (Autumn, 2010) pp. 67-85; Adele Perry, Colonial Relations: the Douglas-Connolly Family in the Nineteenth-Century Imperial World (Cambridge, 2015) pp. 20-26.

1. PROB 11/1947.