General Notes

REFN: 3604AN
Alias:<ALIA> William /De Duglas/
REFN: P3605
The first recorded use of the Do uglas surname was by William De Duglas,
who signed numerous official charters between 1175 and 1213. William, who
died in 1214, was the father to six sons and a daughter. Along with
Archibald De Douglas, heir to the Douglas estates , there were Brice
(Bishop of Moray), Alexander (Canon of Spynie and Vicar of Elgin), Henry
(Canon of Spynie and Clerk of Bishop), Hugh (Archdeacon of Mor ay),
Freskin (Dean of Moray), and Margaret.
Previous possible Douglas histor y:
A sixteenth century legend tells of a knight who, in 767 a.d., was
grante d the Clydesdale lands in return for service to the Scottish King
Solvathius. Whether this legend has any basis in fact may never be known,
but it does se em apparent that Douglases lived in that area for some time
prior to the firs t recorded use of the name.
Although William De Douglas was the first known ow ner of Douglasdale,
holding that land between 1174 and 1213, there is no reas on to doubt that
his father was Theobaldo Flamatico or Theobald the Fleming. The family's
arms indicate the kinship with Murray and a descent like that of Brodie
and Innes, from a third son of the house of Boulogne. In Flanders the re
was a family of the Theobalds who were hereditary castellans of Ypres
be tween about 1060 and 1127, after which their history becomes obscure.
Theobal d's lands in Scotland were granted to him soon after 1150 by the
Abbot of Kel so. William De Douglas, the heir, having married the sister
of Friskin De Ker dale or Freskin of Moray, had by her six sons; the five
younger of them all w ent to Moray to support their uncle there and his
own heir, Archenbald, staye d in Lanarkshire to inherit the Douglas
estates. He married a daughter of Sir John Crawford.