Douglas, James, second Earl of Queensberry d. 1671, the eldest son of William, first earl, by his wife, Lady Isabel Ker, the fourth daughter of Mark, earl of Lothian, succeeded his father in the title in March 1640. On the outbreak of the civil war he attached himself to the king's cause, and was on his way to join Montrose, after the battle of Kilsyth, when he was taken prisoner and lodged at Carlisle. The Marquis of Douglas, who was his companion at the time, and escaped capture, was afterwards fined for having attempted to bribe the governor of the earl's prison to release him. He himself was fined 120,000 marks Scots by the parliament of 1645, and in 1654 4,000l. further was exacted from him by Cromwell's act of grace. He took no further part in public affairs, and died in 1671. He was twice married: first to Lady Mary Hamilton, third daughter of James, marquis of Hamilton, who died childless 29 Oct. 1633; and secondly to Lady Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of John, earl of Traquair, by whom he was the father of four sons and five daughters. William, the eldest son [qv.], succeeded him in the earldom; James, the second, became an advocate, but afterwards went into the army, was colonel of the guards in Scotland, and died at Namur. John and Robert, the two youngest, were both killed in war, the one at the siege of Trèves in 1673, the other at the siege of Maestricht three years later.

Sources:
     Crawford's Peerage of Scotland
     Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, ii. 379
     Fraser's Douglas Book, iii. 331
     Fountainhall's Memoirs, i . 297.

Contributor: A. V. [Alsager Vian]

Published: 1888