Carstairs Douglas has roots!

Carstairs Douglas, an early member of the Amoy Mission, was a fascinating character, and I have uploaded ten pages of info about him on www.Amoymagic.com. But it appears he was not the only high achiever in his family, based on a couple of recent e-mails from a lady in the U.K., who has said she would be happy to help anyone researching the Douglas family. Below are her e-mails.
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill
Carstairs Douglas Pages

September 14, 2008

I stumbled upon your website whilst researching my husband's family tree. Thankyou so much for posting all the information about Carstairs Douglas. It was a genealogists dream!

Carstairs was my husband's great great uncle; his whole family contained many men of the church. One of Carstairs' older brothers was george Cunninghame Monteath Douglas who was a hebraist and Reverend Principal of the Free Church Glasgow and his father was the Reverend at Kilbarchan, Scotland.

Thanks again,

Jean

September 16, 2008

Ref email 15/9/08, no I am not the Jean who contacted in 2003; I hadn't started the research into my husband's tree then. We don't have any more info on Carstairs Douglas, just what we have from you. However, if you go to St Brycedale's Church, Kirkcaldy website, you will see a photo of a stained glass window that is purported to be of him.

I have a large and comprehensive tree about his family though, and have essentially traced his mother's side of the family all the way back to the 17th century, with a fairly definite link to the Earls of Glencairn. His grandmother Ann Cunningham was an heiress who married the Rev John Monteath of Houston, Scotland. On the Douglas side, his.father the Reverend Robert Douglas of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, was directly descended from the Lairds of Barloch near Glasgow. These family members were steeped in the transformation that led to the Scottish Free Church. Furthermore, I have almost postively traced these Barloch Douglases to the Earls of Dalkeith.

In other words, Carstairs was born into a family which had some pretty impressive family roots in terms of the various doings of history. His own siblings, educated as he was at the Manse in Kilbarchan by his parents, all were high achievers. The eldest, Dr James Douglas, then John Monteath Douglas 'the Witty Laird of Barloch' parliamentary Whig candidate and author of works on Bimetallism, Robert Douglas (my husband' great grandfather) engineer and founder of Douglas and Grant Engineering, Kirkcaldy (one of his steam driven rice milling machines is still in use up the Irowaddy Delta in Burma!), George Cunningham Monteath Douglas, Reverend Principal of the Scottish Free Church College Glasgow (went to university at the age of 11; photo available from the National Portrait Gallery) and finally, Campbell Douglas the architect ( Carnegie Libray Ayr, amongst other things.)

I would be happy to supply information to anyone who might be researching the family.

Sincerely, Jean