Douglas, Hugh

Birth

1759

Death

1815/07/04

First Name

Hugh

Last Name

Douglas

Person Title

General Hugh Douglass's estate

PersonID

DouglasHughEstate

Note

Says: "The Estate of General Hugh Douglass"; crossed out on folio 160

Name in Index

Douglas Hugh Decd

Person Biography

Hugh Douglas was born in 1759 in Loudoun County to William Douglas and Elizabeth Offutt Douglas. William was a native of Scotland, having emigrated from Ayrshire circa 1750. The eldest of seven children, Hugh had five sisters and a half-brother.. In 1790, he married a cousin, Catharine Nasmythe, in England; they had four children.  

During his lifetime, Douglas served his state, his country, and Loudoun County in various capacities. His military record reflects service in both the Loudoun County militia, as an officer in the 1st Battalion 56th Regiment, and in the U.S. army, and he saw action in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Upon the resignation of Thomson Mason as brigadier general of the Virginia militia in 1810, Douglas, by a “joint vote of both houses of [the General] Assembly…was appointed to fill that vacancy.” He remained in that position until shortly before his death. An active participant in both local and state politics, Douglas served on a committee of prominent members of the Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William County communities that nominated Armistead T. Mason as the Democratic-Republican candidate for Congress in the election of 1815.  

Douglas, a prominent slaveholding planter in Loudoun County, made his personal residence on a property near Leesburg called Douglas Bottoms, adjacent to the Potomac River. At least some of his properties, or estates, were devoted to raising crops, such as corn and wheat, as well as raising and maintaining both horses and cattle. U.S. census records indicate that in 1810, Douglas held thirty-four enslaved people—a significant number for a Loudoun County slaveholder at that time.  

Douglas’s first wife, Catharine, died in 1812, and he died on 4 July 1815. Both are interred in the St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Leesburg. His tombstone bears the following inscription: “This memorial of grateful affection is most respectfully inscribed by his surviving sons: Charles and Archibald N. Douglas.” His oldest son, Charles, served as executor of his estate along with Armistead T. Mason. 

by Dianne Tomasek