Biography

Mentioned in 18330714WHS_FMS1.

Robert Douglas, 1st Viscount of Belhaven PC (1573 – 14 January 1639), was a Scottish courtier.

The second son of Malcolm Douglas of Mains (executed 1584),[1] by Janet Cunningham, daughter of John Cunningham, of Drumquhassil.[2] He was Master of the Horse to the Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James VI and Charles I and Master of the Household to Charles I.[1][2] He was knighted in 1609 and subsequently sworn of the Scottish Privy Council. In 1633, on the coronation of Charles I, he was raised to the Peerage of Scotland as Viscount of Belhaven, in the County of Haddington.[2]

Lord Belhaven married Nicola Moray, daughter of Robert Moray, in 1611. She died in childbed in November 1612.[2] He had two children by his mistress, Elizabeth Whalley[1] the sister of Edward Whalley, who was subsequently to be a regicide. They were both legitimised by Act of Parliament when he became a viscount at Charles I's coronation in 1633.[citation needed] His son John is assumed to have predeceased him, but his daughter Susanna Douglas married her cousin, Robert Douglas of Blackerston.[1] On his death, his estate including the Gorbals Mansion House passed to his nephew and son-in-law.[3] Lord Belhaven died at Edinburgh in January 1639 and was buried in Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh where his monument remains today.[4] As he had no sons the viscountcy died with him.