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Index of first names

Captain Richard Douglas RN

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date (from) (Date to) Personal
1788   Born
22 September 1830   married Jemima, daughter of William Winchester, of Stoke
1867(1)   Died
 
Date Rank
19 August 1799 Entered Navy
18 September 1809 Lieutenant
5 September 1823 Commander
 
Date from Date to Service
1831 1832 Coast Guard
26 August 1840 1843 Commander (2ic) in Poictiers, commanded by William Henry Shirreff, Chatham



Richard Douglas was the son of John Douglas (1752-6 Feb1832 at Woolwich), the Master Attendant(2) at Plymouth, Sheerness (4 Sep 1819) and Deptford (Appointed 4 Nov 1823; 26 years service in 1831; salary £379 3s 4d) Royal Naval Dockyards. Richard Douglas's son was Richard John Hardy Douglas (1831-1913) who was a Captain in the Royal Marines Light Infantry and who fought at Sebastopol (1854) and Canton (1857).

Richard Douglas entered the Navy, 14 Aug. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Royal George 100, Capt. Wm. Domett, bearing the flag in the Channel of Lord Bridport, in which ship he continued until shortly after his attainment of the rating of Midshipman, 1 Oct. 1800. In July, 1803, he re-embarked on board the Ville de Paris 110, Capt. Tristram Robt. Ricketts, flag-ship subsequently of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis; on removing from which to the Achille 74, Capt. Rich. King, he appears to have been wounded at the battle of Trafalgar 21 Oct. 1805, and to have been with a squadron under Sir Sam. Hood at the capture of four French frigates off Rochefort, 25 Sept. 1806. In Jan. 1809, Mr. Douglas joined the Neptune 98, bearing the flag in the West Indies of Sir Alex. Cochrane; after serving under whom at the reduction of Martinique, he was appointed, 15 March following, Acting-Lieutenant of the Surinam brig, Capt. John Lake. He was next transferred, in a similar capacity, to the Intrepid 64, Capt. Geo. Andrews; and, being confirmed on 18 Sept. in the same year, was afterwards appointed, on the Home station — 30 June, 1810, to the Coquette, Capts. Robt. Forbes and Geo. Hewson — 3 Dec. 1811, to the Bellona 74, Capts. John Erskine Douglas and Geo. McKinley — and 21 Nov. 1814, and 7 Dec. 1815, to the Namur and Bulwark 74’s, flag-ships of Sir Chas. Rowley, in which he successively served until 21 Oct. 1817. His next appointments were — 20 Nov. 1820, to the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary Lieutenant of the Severn 40, Capt. Wm. McCulloch; and, 22 Jan. 1822, to the Coast Guard. Acquiring the rank he now holds 5 Sept. 1823, Commander Douglas, in 1831-2, again served in the Coast Guard, and from 26 Aug. 1840, until the autumn of 1843, commanded the Poictiers 72, guard-ship at Chatham. He has not been since employed.

Richard Douglas is listed on the Trafalgar Roll because he was at Trafalgar serving on the Achille as a midshipman. He also fought at Martinique at 1809 on the Neptune. His Navy General Service medal with the clasp for Trafalgar exists but unfortunately the one for Martinique is missing.


His first wife, Ann McArthur(3), died at Mutley, co. Devon, in 1825.  He married, 22 Sept. 1830, Jemima, daughter of Wm. Winchester, Esq., of Stoke, niece of Alderman Winchester, M.P., of Hawkhurst, and sister-in-law of Commander Wm. Walker, R.N., by whom he has issue.

According to his Will, he had a daughter, Elizabeth(4) and sons,  Richard John Hardy Douglas (1831-1913) and Joseph. According to The Gentleman’s Magazine 1824, Volume 135 page 477, he also had a daughter, Mary, who predeceased him in 1824.


Richard Douglas had a sister called Mary Douglas who died on 24 April 1824 at her father's house in Deptford, at which point she was the widow of Captain Robert Gordon Thomson of the 37th Reg. (from The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 135 page 477). They had married in about 1815. She was born around 1790.

He was an author/editor.

Notes:
1.  According to his gravestone, he died aged 78 in 1866. He was buried in Ladywell Cemetery, Lewisham, London, England, alongside his wife, jemima, (1805-1882)
2.  In 1819, a John Douglas was Master attendant in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Appointed 1815)
3.  Ann's brother was Hannibal Hawkins McArthur, an early Australian colonist, politician, businessman and wool pioneer
4.  Elizabeth Mary Douglas who was born in Mutley, an area of Plymouth, in about 1820 and died in Hampshire in 1908. She married Robert Hughtrede Holt and they had 4 children one of whom became a captain in the Royal Marines Light Infantry like Richard John Hardy Douglas.





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Last modified: Thursday, 22 February 2024