DOUGLAS. The most powerful and widely celebrated famil3'that Scotland ever produced. The name was assumed from lands on the small river Douglas, in Lanarkshire, (Gael, diif-glas, du-cjlas, i.e., dark grey, from the colour of its waters), where William of Dufglaswas established as early as 1175. This illustrious race, renowned throughout western Europe for its romantic career, may well be accounted an "historical " family, for as Hume, the annalist of the House, has it —

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.