Douglas of Spynie

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A collection of people of, associated with or from Spynie, and notes relating to them.

The genealogy of this branch has yet to be determined.

• Alexander Douglas of Spynie married a daughter of Robert Baikie, 7th of Tankerness who died 04.04.1817
• Alexander Douglas of Spynie in Elgin (eldest son of Alexander Douglas, Bishop of Moray in 1606), was father of William Douglas, Chamberlain for the Earldom of Orkney, to whom he disponed his lands of Spynie in 1687 (probably this William).
• Alexander Douglas of Spynie, chamberlain for the Earldom of Orkney, 1664
• Alexander Douglas of Spynie, 24th Sep 1666, appointed Rev David Kennedy
• Patrick Dunbar, who was the son of Patrick Dunbar of Blervie, was a ministerin Duffus, Moray, in 1608. It would appear he succeeded Mr John Keith at Duffus in or before 1609, He married Elspet, daughter of Douglas of Spynie, who survived him to remarry John Gray, minister of Dornoch.
• Children of William, 1st Lord Douglas
  • Alexander de Douglas, a canon of Spynie and vicar capitular of Elgin
  • Henry de Douglas, a canon of Spynie
  • Hugh de Douglas, a canon of Spynie, Archdeacon of Moray
• JOHN INNES, of Leuchars, Baillie of the Regality and Constable
  of the Castle of Spynie (offices confirmed to him by Act of Parlia-
  ment, 1641), had joined in 1625 the Scots Guards in the service of
  the King of France. He m. 1622, Elizabeth, only dau. of Archibald
  Douglas, of Pittendreich, and d. 1645, leaving issue,
  
  1. JOHN, of Leuchars, imprisoned by the Covenanters, and his
  estate sequestered until the Restoration.
  
  2. Robert, killed by the Covenanters at Leuchars.
  
  3. ALEXANDER
• Elizabeth Douglas of Spynie married Rev John Gray (died 21st Jan. 1638) as his second wife. She was widow of Patrick Dunbar, minister of Duffus

During the Commonwealth, Cromwell sent deputies into the islands of Orkney and Shetland, who committed great irregularities, particularly in the clandestine alteration of the weights and measures. Charles II. restored episcopacy, and commanded the rents of the church lands to be paid to the bishop. As the family of Morton was then in embarrassed circumstances, the possession of the crown lands was committed in trust for the family to George, Viscount Grandison, who appointed Alexander Douglas of Spynie as factor to receive the crown rents of the islands, and to grant feu charters. Spynie's mission to Shetland is well remembered ; for he was instructed to dispute the validity of all tenures which did not depend on confirmations from the crown; and as many of the recent settlers possessed only dispositions and sasines from the old udallers, which they expected would have been at least preferable to the despised .shynd-bill, they were likewise compelled to make up new titles as vassals to the king. From this period, then, may be dated the complete subversion of the ancient laws of the country. The udallers now abandoned for ever the open space of the lawting, where, beneath no other canopy than the sky, their fathers had met to legislate for at least six centuries. They were henceforward required, as vassals of the crown, to give suit and presence at the courts held within some covered hall at Kirkwall and Scalloway.

The right of representation in parliament, bestowed on the people of Orkney,—for, till the late Reform Act, those of Shetland were denied the privilege of sharing in the election of a member of the British senate, and which right was necessarily exercised under the Scottish law regulating freehold qualifications,—likewise entailed on the former, in the most complete manner, all the forms of feudal conveyancings, and thus caused them farther to seek an alteration of the usages of their forefathers.

In the reign of Queen Anne, the Morton family acquired still larger and less qualified grants of the islands, and especially their vice-admiralty, and the right of patronage to all the churches ; and, in 1742, the Earl of Morton obtained from parliament a discharge of the claim of reversion previously competent to the crown: but, in the year 1776, the earl found this property so troublesome to him, from the vexatious lawsuits in which it had involved him, that he sold his entire rights over Orkney and Shetland for the sum of £60,000 to Sir Lawrence Dundas. The Earl of Zetland, whose father, Lord Dundas (lately deceased), obtained this title, is now lord-lieutenant of the Stewartry. The islands pay their proportion of the land-tax, and in every other respect have become subject to British laws, their internal administration being committed to the sheriffs and justices of peace.

See also:

Help with this branch of the Douglas family would be very welcome