William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton

Arms of Sir William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton, KG

William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton (1582 – 7 August 1648) was a grandson of the 6th Earl of Morton. He was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and a zealous Royalist, who, on the outbreak of the Great Rebellion in 1642, provided £100,000 for the cause by selling his Dalkeith estates to the Earl of Buccleuch.^[1] He also expanded his other seat, Aberdour Castle in Fife, with a Renaissance-style east wing.

Family

On 28 March 1604, he married Lady Anne Keith, a daughter of the George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal and they had ten children: ^[2]

• Lady Margaret Douglas (1610–1678), married the 1st Marquess of Argyll and had issue.
• Lady Anne Douglas (d. 1667), married the 2nd Earl of Kinnoull and had issue.
• Robert Douglas, 8th Earl of Morton (d. 1649)^[1]
• Lady Mary Douglas, married the 2nd Earl of Dunfermline and had issue.
• James Douglas, 10th Earl of Morton (d. 1686)^{[1][lower-alpha 1]}
• Lady Isabel Douglas (d. 1650), married the 2nd Marquess of Montrose and had issue.
• Nicholas Douglas (d.1686), married
• Jean Douglas
• Agnes Douglas

Claimant to the earldom

John Maxwell, 9th Lord Maxwell (c. 1586–1613), a descendant of the 3rd Earl, also claimed the earldom of Morton, but was attainted in 1609 and his rights then failed, his titles and estates being restored in 1618 to his brother Robert, with the title of Earl of Nithsdale (1620) in lieu of Morton.

Notes

References

• Lodge, Edmund (1832). The Genealogy of the Existing British Peerage. Saunders and Otle. p. 255. 

Further reading

•  Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1888). "Douglas, William (1582-1650)". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 15. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 367–368. 
• Sizer, J. R. M. (2004). "Douglas, William, seventh earl of Morton (1582–1648)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7933.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)