Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry

Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, 2nd Duke of Dover, PC (24 November 1698  22 October 1778[1]) was a Scottish nobleman, extensive landowner, Privy Counsellor and Vice Admiral of Scotland.

3rd Duke of Queensberry by Thomas Hudson, after 1750
Queensberry House

Life

He was born in Queensberry House in Edinburgh on 24 November 1698.[2]

The younger son of James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, 1st Duke of Dover, and Mary Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle, 3rd Viscount Dungarvan, on 17 June 1706 while still a child he was created in his own right Lord Douglas of Lockerbie, Dalveen and Thornhill, Viscount of Tiberris and Earl of Solway. In 1711 he succeeded his father as Duke of Queensberry and inherited Queensberry House, thanks to a grant of novodamus which excluded his mentally ill older brother James Douglas from the succession to the Dukedom, but left James the Marquessate of the same name.[3] Upon his brother's death in 1715 he succeeded him as the 4th Marquess of Queensberry.

In 1728 Queensberry took up the cause of John Gay, who was friendly with his wife,[4] when a licence for his opera Polly was refused. He quarrelled with George II and resigned his appointments in the same year.

In 1746 the Duke of Queensberry invested in the British Linen Company as one of the original proprietors hoping to see the development of the Scottish economy through the manufacturing of Linen to be sold to the American colonies and Caribbean plantations.[5] In 1762, after the death of Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Queensberry became the Governor of the British Linen Company until 1776.[6] The period was one of turmoil and restructuring, as the directors of the Company decided to stop manufacturing Linen from factories owned in the Highlands and turn to financing independent manufacturers to continue their trade. It was an important moment in the history of Scottish finance and the future of the Company.

He was a founding governor of London's Foundling Hospital, created in 1739. He was appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland in 1761 and was Lord Justice General from 1763 until his death in 1778. Queensberry was one of many who had lost heavily from the failure of the Douglas Heron and Co Bank in 1776.[6] As there were no heirs, his English titles, including the dukedom of Dover, became extinct, but the Queensberry title passed to his cousin, William Douglas.[4]

Family

On 10 March 1720 he married Lady Catherine Hyde, a daughter of Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon. They had two sons, who both predeceased him.

References

  1. Sancho, Ignatius; Jekyll, Joseph (1782). Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African ...: To which are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life ... J. Nichols.
  2. Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh vol. III p.37
  3. The genealogy of the existing British peerage: with sketches of the family, Edmund Lodge
  4. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Queensberry, Earls, Marquesses and Dukes of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 731.
  5. Durie, Alastair J. (1973). The Scottish Linen Industry 1707-1775 with particular reference to the early history of the British Linen Company. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. p. 209.
  6. Malcom, Charles (1950). The History of the British Linen Bank. Edinburgh. p. 201.
Political offices
Preceded by
Earl of Rothes
Vice Admiral of Scotland
1722–1729
Succeeded by
Earl of Stair
Preceded by
Earl of Islay
Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland
1761–1763
Succeeded by
Duke of Atholl
Legal offices
Preceded by
Marquess of Tweeddale
Lord Justice General
1763–1778
Succeeded by
Earl of Mansfield
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham
Senior Privy Counsellor
1769–1778
Succeeded by
The Earl of Sandwich
Peerage of Scotland
New title Lord Douglas of Lockerbie, Dalveen and Thornhill
1706–1778
Extinct
Viscount of Tiberris
1706–1778
Earl of Solway
1706–1778
Preceded by
James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry
Duke of Dover
1711–1778
Duke of Queensberry
1711–1778
Succeeded by
William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry
Preceded by
James Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Queensberry
Marquess of Queensberry
1715–1778
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