William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry

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For other persons named William Douglas, see William Douglas (disambiguation).

William Douglas (1724-1810), 4th Duke of Queensberry was a Scottish nobleman.

Born in Peebles, the only son of William, second Earl of March, and his wife, Lady Anne Hamilton, he succeeded his father to the Earldom of March in 1731 and his mother to the Earldom of Ruglen in 1748.

He was appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1761 and was a Scottish representative peer from 1761. He was Vice Admiral of Scotland from 1767 to 1776. He was Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries from 1794 until 1810.

He succeeded his cousin Charles as Duke of Queensberry in 1778, and was created Baron Douglas of Amesbury in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1786.

A friend of the Prince of Wales, he was appointed Lord of the Bedchamber to George III in 1760. During the King's illness in 1788, Queensberry went to great lengths to assess the probability of recovery. However, he made a wrong decision, recommended a regency and supported the Prince of Wales's claim to full sovereign powers. On the King's recovery, he was dismissed on the instance of the Queen and Pitt.

Queensberry was the largest landlord in Nithsdale, and although Burns sent him a copy of The Whistle with a fulsome letter dated 24 September 1791, the poet loathed him, as is shown by these lines:

All hail, Drumlanrig's haughty Grace —
Discarded remnant of a race
Once godlike, great in story!
His forbears virtues all contrasted —
The very name of Douglas blasted
His that inverted glory!
"Hate, envy, oft the Douglas bore;
But he has superadded more
And sunk them in contempt!
Follies and crimes have stained the name,
But, Queensberry, thine the virgin claim,
From aught that's good exempt!

In 1795, the Duke stripped the woodlands around Drumlanrig Castle and Neidpath Castle in Peebleshire, to find money for a dowry for Maria Fagniani, whom he fancied was his daughter, when she married the Earl of Yarmouth. This action incurred the immediate wrath of Burns, and the later wrath of Wordsworth. Burns was said to have inscribed his Verses on the Destruction of the Woods near Drumlanrig on the back of a window shutter in an inn or toll house near the scene of the devastations. In this poem, the wandering poet meets the 'genius of the stream', and asks if the destruction has been caused by some 'bitter Eastern blasts', but is told:

'Nae eastling blast', the sprite replied,
'It blew na here sae fierce and fell,
And on my dry and halesome banks
Nae canker-worms get leave to dwell:
Man! Cruel man!' the genius sighed —
As through the cliffs he sank him down —
'The worm that gnawed my bonny trees,
That reptile wears a ducal crown'.

Queensberry was a liberal patron of Italian opera, although, it was said, more out of interest in the prima donnas and dancers than in the music. Latterly known as Old Q., he was notorious for his escapades and dissolute lifestyle and was a member of the Hellfire Club. He endeavoured to develop horse racing into a science. In later years he sold his house at Newmarket and lived at Cholmondeley House, Richmond upon Thames, where he collected pictures and objets d'art.

Finally, he was largely confirmed to his house in Mayfair (Queensberry House). In his last infirmity, he employed the former physician to Louis XV, Pere Elisee, who was to be paid a large sum for every day his patient was kept alive, but nothing from the moment he died.

Raikes, in his Journal, said of 'Old Q': He was a little sharp-looking man, very irritable, and swore like ten thousand troopers. Mackenzie, in Anecdotes and Egotisms claimed that he was a disciple of Epicurus but without the virtue of the Epicurean system; and he had none of the hypocrisy of pretending to virtue or disinterestedness.

Although he had a number of illegitimate children, he never married, and his titles were dispersed on his death. The dukedom of Queensberry, with some other titles and Drumlanrig Castle, passed to the third Duke of Buccleuch, in whose family they remain.

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Political offices
Preceded by:
The Earl of Hyndford		 Vice-Admiral of Scotland
1767–1776		 Succeeded by:
The Earl of Breadalbane
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by:
Charles Douglas		 Duke of Queensberry
1778-1810		 Succeeded by:
Henry Scott
Preceded by:
Charles Douglas		 Marquess of Queensberry
1778-1810		 Succeeded by:
Charles Douglas
Preceded by:
William Douglas		 Earl of March
1731-1810		 Succeeded by:
Francis Douglas
Preceded by:
Anne Hamilton

(as Countess of Ruglen)

 Earl of Ruglen
1748-1810		 Succeeded by:
Earldom extinct
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