Douglas, James, 14th Earl of Morton (1703 -1768)

James Douglas was the elder son of George, 13th Earl Morton, and his second wife Frances Adderly. Educated at King's College, Cambridge, he took his M.A. in 1722, and afterwards travelled on the Continent where he studied physics. He succeeded to the title in 1738 and was made a Knight of the Thistle in the same year. In 1746 he was confined in the Bastille for three months for a reason that was not disclosed but probably had to do with his Jacobite leanings. He became Lord Clerk Register in 1760, and was elected President of the Royal Society of London in 1764. He married, firstly, Agatha, daughter and heir of James Halyburton, of Pitcur in Forfarshire. She died 12 December 1748, and he married secondly, 31 July 1755, Bridget, daughter of Sir John Heathcote, 2nd Baronet of Normanton, in Rutland. The Library of George Douglas, 18th Earl of Morton was sold at auction in London by Wheatley & Adlard 18 May 1829.