Genealogy Richard Remmé, The Hague, Netherlands » James (James "the Gross") "the Gross" Douglas 7th Earl of Douglas, Earl of Avondale (1371-1443)

Personal data James (James "the Gross") "the Gross" Douglas 7th Earl of Douglas, Earl of Avondale 

• Alternative names: James Douglas Sir of Balvenie, James Douglas of Balvany
• Nickname is the Gross.
• He was born in the year 1371 in Douglas Castle, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.Source 8
• Occupations:
• Earl of Douglas.Sources 4, 5
• about 1437 Earl of Avondale.Sources 5, 6, 9
• about 1437 Lord of Balveny.Sources 6, 9
• (Fact) : 7th Earl of Douglas & Avondale.Source 10
• (Nickname) : James the Gross.Sources 5, 6, 9
• (Alt. Birth) in the year 1370.Source 10
• (Alt. Birth) in the year 1370: Brechin, Hermiston, Scotland.Source 7
• (Alt. Death) on March 24, 1443.Source 7
• (Alt. Death) on March 24, 1443.Source 10
• He died on March 24, 1443 in Abercorn castle, West Lothian, Scotland, he was 72 years old.Sources 5, 8

  Abercorn

• He is buried in Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.Source 8

  
  Saint Bride's Cemetery
  Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland

• A child of Archibald Douglas and Joan Moray
• This information was last updated on December 4, 2022.

Household of James (James "the Gross") "the Gross" Douglas 7th Earl of Douglas, Earl of Avondale

(1) He is married to Beatrice Sinclair.

They got married about 1410.

Child(ren):

1. Beatrix Douglas  ± 1408-???? 
2. Janet Douglas  ± 1417-???? 
3. James Douglas  ± 1420-1488 
4. Elizabeth Douglas  ± 1425-???? 
5. Archibald Douglas  ± 1420-????
6. William Douglas  ± 1425-± 1451
7. Hugh Douglas  ± 1420-????

(2) He is married to Beatrice Stuart.

They got married.

Notes about James (James "the Gross") "the Gross" Douglas 7th Earl of Douglas, Earl of Avondale

TITLE: 1st Earl of Avondale

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[Isiaha Lee.ged]

James (DOUGLAS), EARL OF DOUGLAS and EARL OF AVONDALE [SCT], called "The Gross," great-uncle and heir male, being the 2nd son of Archibald, the 3rd Earl.  He was of Balveny, &c., co. Banff; was on the trial, 1425, of the Duke Of Albany [SCT]; was Warden of the West Marches, and was, about 1437, created EARL OF AVONDALE [SCT], having charter of lands in Peebles, 22 December 1439 (confirmed 20 September1440 by royal charter) as "Earl of Avendale and Lord of Balveny," a few months before he succeeded to the Earldom of Douglas. He appears to have married 1stly, Beatrice, daughter of Robert (STEWART), Duke Of Albany [SCT], the Regent, by his 1st wife, Margaret, suo jure Countess Of Menteith [SCT].  If so, she died s.p., about 1424.  He certainly married, apparently as 2nd wife, before 7 March 1425/6, Beatrice, daughter of Henry (SINCLAIR), Earl Of Orkney [SCT].  He died 24 March 1442/3 or 28 March 1443, and was buried at Douglas. M.I.  His widow was living June 1455, at which date she (with her 3 eldest surviving sons) was attainted.  She appears to have died in England before 8 Feb. 1462/3.
[Complete Peerage IV:435, XIV:273]

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James, the second son of Archibald, 'the Grim,' third Earl of Douglas, as the heir-male under the entail of 1342.  In his earlier years, when he was known as James Douglas of Balvany, an estate in Banffshire given him by his brother the fourth Earl, he was of a violent and impetuous temperament, as his treatment of the Customs officers testifies.  Another exploit of his might be patriotice, but it was cruel, the burning of the town of Berwick in 1405, a fact which he defended with much spirit in a letter to King Henry IV.  A more private act of violence was committed by him a few months later, an attack upon and the murder of Sir David Fleming of Biggar, while riding over Lang Hermandston Moor near Haddington, in or about February 1406.  In 1409 Douglas was Warden of the Marches, and as such superintended the demolition of the old Castle of Jedburgh.

Besides Balvany, James Douglas held from his brother the lands and baronies of Avoch, Edderdor, Strathern, and Brachly in Inverness-shire; Boharm and others in Banffshire; with the baronies of Aberdour and Rattray in Buchan, and parts of Petty, Duffus, and others in Morayshire.  He had also in 1408 the strong Castle of Abercorn, in co Linlithgoe, and apparently possessed the above also at the same date.  He was one of those who met King James I at Durham, and accompanied him to Scotland in April 1424, and the following year he was one of the jurors who sat on the trial of Murdoch, Duke Of Albany and Earl Of Lennox.  In 1437, probably about the time when his nephew the fifth Earl of Douglas was made Lieutenant-General, James Douglas was appointed Justice-General of Scotland, and he was also created Earl of Avondale and Lord Balvany.  He appears both as Earl and as Justice-General in a decision dated at Jedburgh on 28 November 1437, as to the ownership of the East Mains of Hawick.  The Earl was also employed in other services, but he does not appear largely in public affairs after 1438, one reason no doubt being increasing corpulence, which in his case is said to have been excessive. ; In 1440, as already stated, he succeeded his grandnephew as seventh Earl of Douglas, and the latest public reference to him is his presence at a great General Council in April 1441.  He died, so far as a comparison of authorities can be relied upon, on 25 March 1443, apparently at Abercorn, and his body was carried to Douglas and buried there.  The monument erected to him and his Countess still stands, and his effigy bears out the statement made by contemporary chroniclers as to his extreme obesity. There is no seal of this James of Douglas known to be engraved, nor recorded anywhere, but his seal as Justiciar of the Kingdom of Scotland is reporduced in the 'Douglas Book.'

He appears to have been twice married.  His only recorded wife is Beatrice Sinclair noted below, but his is three times within a year styled 'brother' by Murdach, Duke Of Albany, which suggests that he married an unknown or a widowed daughter of Robert, Duke Of Albany, or that he married a sister-in-law of Duke Murdach.  But no evidence on the point has been discovered, and she must have deceased before 1424, without issue.  The only wife whose name appears on his monument is Beatrix Sinclair, described as daughter of Henry, Earl Of Orkney. They were married before 7 March 1425-26, when King James I granted to them certain lands in conjunct fee, and it is the earliest date at which they are named as husband and wife; but she is frequently mentioned in later writs.  Countess Beatrix survived her husband many years, and in 1455 was forfeited for aiding her sons in their rebellion against King James II. ; She seems to have escaped to England, and died before 8 February 1463.
[The Scots Peerage III:172-174]

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James Douglas, seventh Earl of Douglas, 'the Gross' or 'Fat' (1371?-1443), was brother of Archibald 'Tyneman,' the fourth earl, and son of Archibald 'the Grim,' the third earl.  He first appears in history as Sir James Douglas of Balvenie, who in 1409 waylaid and killed Sir David Fleming of Cumbernauld on his return from sccompanying to the Bass the young prince of Scotland, afterwards James I, when sent by his father, Robert III, out of Scotland, to escape from the plots of Albany and Douglas's brother, Archibald, the fourth earl.  During the regency of Albany his name aften appears as one of the nobles who were kept on the side of the regent by being allowed to prey upon the customs.  He was one of the hostages for his brother the earl when an English prisoner after the battle of Homildon.  In the beginning of the reign of James I he sat on the assizes which tried Murdoch, Duke Of Albany, and his sons, on 24 and 25 May 1425.  Several charters to him about this time prove the growth of his estats and the favour shown him by that king.  One of these, dated 7 March 1426, confirmed his title to the castle and barony of Abercorn, Linlithgow.  Another, 18 April 1426, confirmed the grant made to him by his brother Archibald, then deceased, of lands and baronies in the counties of Inverness, Banff, and Aberdeen, and the third the same year, 11 May 1426, a grant of lands in Elgin, also the gift of his brother.  In 1426 and 1427 he acquired estates in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, on the resignation of Elizabeth De Moravia. This series of charters probably indicates the settlement of this cadet of the powerful border earl in the northern districts of Scotland, where the family had not hitherto taken root, and was possibly due to the policy which James I in other cases pursued, of separating such families by removing them from the localities where their vicinity to each other made them as a clan more formidable to the crown. ; In 1437 he was created Earl of Avondale, and a conveyance of the lands of Glenquhar in Peeblesshire to him by William Firsel, lord of Overtoun, in 1439, was confirmed by royal charter on 20 Sept 1440.  The murder of his grandnephew, William, the sixth earl, and his brother David at Edinburgh, at the instigation of Crichton the chancellor, took place in the following month.  As he did nothing to avenge it, and immediately succeeded to the title and Douglas estates other than those in Galloway, the conjecture that he may have connived at it, and was at all events on good terms with Crichton the chancellor, who was its chief author, has probability, through it cannot be said to be proved.  He held the earldom of Douglas only for three years, and died on 24 March 1443 at Abercorn.  The 'Short Chronicle of the Reign of James II' states in the rude but pithy vernacular a fact which accounts for his byname of the 'Fat' or 'Gross,'  Thai said he had in him four stane of taulch (tallow) and mair.'  The same physical peculiarity is commemorated in a Latin epigram preserved by Hume of Godscroft:

Duglasii Crassique mihi cognomina soli
Convaniunt: O quam nomina juncta male!
To be a Douglas and be gross withall
You shall not find another amongst them all!

He was buried at Douglas, where the inscription on his tomb records that besides his own estates he held the office of warden of the marches.  He was married to Beatrix Sinclair, daughter of Henry, lord Sinclair, and left by her six, perhaps seven sons, of whom the two eldest, Willaim and James, were successively eighth and ninth Earls of Douglas, and Archibald, the thire, became Earl of Moray, Hugh, the fourth, Earl of Ormonde, and Johh, the fifth, Lord of Balvenie.
[Dictionary of National Biography V:1211-1212]

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