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DOUGLAS Family History

This noble and distinguished surname is of Scottish territorial origin from the lands of Douglas, south of Glasgow, in Lanarkshire, situated on the Douglas Water. These waters were so named from the Old Gaelic "dubh", dark or black, plus "glas", a rivulet or stream. The original stronghold of the Douglas family and their retainers lay in this area, and the Douglases were described by the historian Lang as "the great, turbulent, daring, and too often treacherous house". The fair principal stems of the family are: the old Douglas of Douglasdale (the Black Douglas), illustrious in the War of Independence: the line of Morton who were closely connected with Mary Queen of Scots: the house of Drumlanrig and Queensberry, and the House of Angus, the Red Douglas...