William Douglas of Kirkness

Brigadier-General William Douglas (b. 1688 - d. 1747), of Kirkness, Kinross, was a British soldier amd Member of Parliament.

Descended from the earls of Morton, William Douglas was the oldest son of Sir Robert Douglas of Kirkness by Jean, daughter of John Balfour, 3rd Lord Balfour of Burleigh, widow of George Oliphant of Gask, Perth.

He was returned to Parliament for Member of Parliament for Kinross-shire as a Whig in 1715, sitting until 1722. No votes of his are recorded, nor did he stand again.

First commissioned in 1709, Captain Douglas joined Croft's Light Dragoons from which, in 1720, he was appointed to the Coldstream Guards.

He served with distinction in the War of the Austrian Succession, and was given the command of the 32nd Regiment of Foot soon after Battle of Fontenoy (1745). The 32nd Regiment served briefly in England in 1745/46 in the army of the Duke of Cumberland and subsequently did 'good service' in Lancashire. They were employed in Scotland on the dispersal of the clans, remaining there but a short lime, as they could ill be spared from Flanders.

Family
On 11 June 1737, contrary to the wishes of her relatives, Anne, third daughter of Charles Howard, M.P., 3rd Earl of Carlisle, married Colonel William Douglas, as her second husband, at St. George's, Hanover Square.

Anne had been married previously to Rich Ingram, 5th Viscount of Irvine, who had died in 1721. She was appointed in 1736 a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales (mother of George III), and for the rest of her life was a prominent figure at Court. She was forced to keep her second marriage with Colonel William Douglas a secret for fear of losing her paid position in the royal household. She was author of several poems, and is noticed in Duncombe's Feminead.

Brigadier-General Douglas died in Brabant on 5 August 1747, falling a victim to the unhealthiness of the climate. As he died without children, on his death, his sister Isabel was retoured heir to him. There is a memorial to him on the north wall of Kew Chapel.

Anne died 2 December 1764, and is buried near her second husband at Kew.