James Struthers Douglas M.D. was a teacher, missionary
minister and doctor in Scotland and Canada. He was born in 1817 in
Dairsie, Fife, Scotland, to John Douglas, a blacksmith of Dairsie, and
Mary Turner.
A teacher, he was appointed as a missionary
(?under Royal Bounty Com.) to the Presbytery of Toronto Church, Bytown
(now Ottawa), on 14th Jan. 1847. It appears that he returned the United
Kingdom by 1850.
The John O'Groat Journal on Friday, December 6,
1850 reported:
Enquiry into state of one James Struthers Douglas
alleged dangerous lunatic, sometime of Thurso
and on December 20:
Rev. James Struthers Douglas. A missionary under Royal Bounty Com. After
long trial on charge of lunacy and examination by doctors and clergy is
declared a danger to himself and the public and arrangements (were) made
to remove him to a place of safety.
In 1856, when he married Anna
Maria Crate, (b. 1839, Camberwell, London d. 12 Apr 1917, Bristol) in
either Newington or Walworth,(1) both in London, he had presumably
recovered. He believed he suffered from 'Monoism' and was certain that
someone was trying to assassinate him by thoughtwave! It was probably
delusionally paranoid.
His first child, Anna Maria, was born in
Cramond, Edinburgh, in 1856
He was ordained in Edinburgh in 1858
and appointed by the Colonial Committee to be minister of St Andrew's,
Peterborough, Ontario, 1858-64. However, he was the subject of a
'Presbyterian Visitation', found wanting and moved to Toronto 1864/65.
Whether then or later, he was found to be suffering from 'monoism' and
placed in a secure environment for a while before being
returned to Scotland. His 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th children were born in
Peterborough between 1859 and 1862; his 6th, Clara Newcomb, was born in
Toronto in 1865.
On his return to Scotland, he trained as a
Doctor (1867-1870). He then appears in Birsay, Orkney as Minister and
Doctor till 1877. Four of his 14 children were born there.
He
then decamps to North Yell, presumably before 1875 when his son David
Henry Webster was born.
While Minister in Yell, with a family of
14, he had acted as a doctor as well as a minister and when he died, on
18th June 1884 in The Manse, Cullivoe, North Yell, it was wrongly
assumed that he had succumbed to an infectious disease, possibly
typhoid. The Cullivoe people were afraid of catching the disease and so
the Captain and crew of S.S. Ennismore gave assistance and attended the
funeral. He was buried in the Cullivoe Cemetery.
Notes:
1.
Differing reports state they were married on 2 Jan 1856 in Newington and
in 1856 in Walworth, both London.
2. Using Fasti Ecclesia
Scoticana as a source has proved problematical as different editions
have given differing versions of his life.
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