The
story of how the Douglases of Friarshaw found their way to Java
is not a tale of a single dramatic voyage, but rather a slow,
almost tidal movement of people, professions, and loyalties
across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It begins in the
Scottish Borders, where the Douglases of Friarshaw lived as a
minor gentry family with a strong tradition of naval and
military service. Men like Admiral Sir James Douglas and Captain
William Douglas carried the family name far beyond
Roxburghshire, serving in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and
the Atlantic world. Their careers did not take them to the Dutch
Indies, yet they set a pattern: younger sons entering imperial
service, moving through ports and colonial stations, and
marrying into communities far from home.
By the
late eighteenth century, Scotland was supplying soldiers,
sailors, and clerks not only to the British Empire but also to
the Dutch East India Company. The VOC was a vast employer, and
it absorbed men from across Europe, including Scots who sought
opportunity abroad. It was in this world - the world of Company
forts, garrisons, and island stations - that a Douglas, almost
certainly a younger descendant of the Friarshaw line, entered
Dutch service and found himself in the Moluccas. Ambon, Banda,
and Ternate were places where European soldiers frequently
married local or Indo-European women, creating families that
blended Scottish surnames with island heritage. Over time, these
families became part of the Indo-European community of the
Moluccas, a group that grew steadily through the nineteenth
century.
By the
mid-1800s, the Douglas name was well established in Ambon.
Church registers, KNIL rolls, and civil records show a cluster
of Douglas families living as soldiers, clerks, craftsmen, and
small officials. They were no longer Scots in any cultural
sense, yet their surname carried the faint echo of Friarshaw.s
fields and the Border hills. It was from this Ambonese Douglas
community that your own ancestor, Robert Douglas, was born in
1868. His life marks the next stage of the journey.
The
Dutch Indies were changing rapidly in the late nineteenth
century. Java, with its booming plantation economy and expanding
administrative machinery, drew people from across the
archipelago. KNIL soldiers were posted there; clerks and
overseers were transferred; families moved in search of work,
schooling, and stability. Robert Douglas followed this pattern,
leaving the Moluccas for East Java. By the time his daughter,
J.G. Zweerts-Douglas, was born in Kediri in 1908, the family had
become part of the Indo-European society that shaped so much of
Java’s colonial life.
Thus
the path from Friarshaw to Java was not a straight line but a
chain of migrations: a Borders family with naval traditions; a
younger son entering VOC or KNIL service; settlement in Ambon;
the growth of an Indo-European Douglas community; and finally
the move to Java during the great internal migration of the late
colonial period. It is a story of empire, opportunity, and
adaptation - and of how a Scottish name found new roots on the
far side of the world.
The family
DOROTHEA MAGDALENA DOUGLAS born Arnhem 31/Dec/1888, daughter of Cornelius Marinus
Agnietus & Wilhelmina Catharina Johanna Douglas nee Brumsteede; died Hove, Sussex, England
05/Oct/1944; married Kraksaan, East Java, 06/Jan/1917; div. Soerabaja 24/Jun/1932, Jan Frederik Maurits
Lange and had issue:
1. Douglas Lange, died Rhodesia, 15/Jun/1986, Lieutenant- Colonel Army Service
2. Robert Lange, died infancy
3. Peter Lange, in 1944 serving as Major, commanded an Infantry company from the invasion of
Normandy until Hamburg. 26/27 September, Military Cross for action over the Wilhelminakanaal,
behind the German lines, at Best Oorschot; 1961 retiring, he bought himself a fur farm with blue
foxes; married Stella and had 3 children. Lived at Cherry Trees, Exeter Road, Honiton, Devon.
4. Thomas Christian Lange, died 28/Jan/1982, Officer Royal Navy
5. James Lange, farmer in Canada.
ROBERT DOUGLAS was born Bergen op Zoom 10/Dec/1832, 2nd son of Cornelius Marinus Douglas and
Maria Hendrica van Dijk; died Ambon, Dutch East Indies, 07/Feb/1897; joined the army for 10 years in the
6
th Regiment of Infantry where he rose quickly to 1st Lieutenant. He was discharged from the army in 1862.
1865, he wrote a letter to his cousin Sir George Henry Douglas, 4th Baronet of Springwood Park asking for
a place as Officer of Trade in the British Colonies. 1872 he was appointed as 3rd Clerk of the Post office at
Weltevredean, Batavia followed by several other positions until 1880 when he retired after working as a
clerk of the Police Department of the Assistant-Resident at Soerabaja, East-Java. He had a natural son
Robert (see under); married Ambon 18/Aug/1870, Johanna Margaritta Hoekstra and had issue:
1. Elizabeth Johanna Margaritta Douglas, born Ambon 28/Apr/1872; died Ambon 28/Apr/1942;
unmarried; pharmacy assistant.
2. Henry George Robert Douglas, born Painan, West-Sumatria 19/Jul/1875; died Soerabaja, EastJava 25/May/1897; unmarried;
3. Anton Marinus Cornelius Douglas, born Soerabaja, 02/Sep/1879; died Soerabaja 20/Feb/1899;
unmarried.
4. Anna Maria Hendrika Douglas, born 09/Feb/1883; died 09/Sep/1909; unmarried, pharmacy
assistant.
5. Jan Witze Douglas, born Soerabaja, 13/Sep/1886, died Soerabaja 17/Jan/1887.
ROBERT DOUGLAS the natural son of Robert Douglas, was born Amboina, 06/Aug/1868; died Soerabaja
10/Jul/1920. Chief of Police at Probolinggo, East-Java, Dutch East Indies; married Probolinggo
11/Nov/1896, Henrietta Suzanna Zange and had issue:
1. Antonius Johannes Douglas born Probolinggo, 24/Jun/1898; died
's-Gravenhage, 18/Jan/1956;
engineer Government Railways at Java; married (1) Soerabaja, 15/Nov/1922; div. Soerabaja
20/Jan/1934; married (2) Palembang 12/Feb/1936, Flora van der Linden. No issue.
2. Jeanette Gertrude Douglas born Kediri, Mid-Java, 29/Aug/1908; married Soerabaja,
19/Aug/1932, Johannes Cornelius Zweerts who died in a P.O.W. Camp Pakanbaru, WestSumatra, 28/Nov/1944.
3. Eduard Nicolaas Douglas (see under)
3. EDUARD NICOLAAS DOUGLAS born Kediri, 12/Nov/1901, died Wassenaar, South Holland
08/Nov/1961 accidently while working on road. Chief employee Government Railways in the Dutch East
Indies and was employed on road construction in the Netherlands; married Soerabaja 21/Nov/1928,
Lambertine van Mourik; and had issue:
1. Robbert Douglas
2. Bobby Douglas.
