Basil William Douglas, Lord Daer

Basil William Douglas, Lord Daer FRSE (1763-1794) was a Scottish nobleman who, in his short life, developed a reputation as an agricultural improver and an advocate of parliamentary reform. He was an active member of, among other radical societies, the "Friends of the People". He is one of the small group of people to whom Robert Burns dedicated poetry. Early life He was the second son of Helen Hamilton and Dunbar Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk. Despite the death of his parents first son in infancy, Douglas did not become Earl as he died before his father. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. While studying lodged with his teacher moral philosopher Dugald Stewart, one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, and a renowned populariser of the work of Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith. In 1785 (soon after its inception in 1783) Daer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Dugald Stewart, James Gregory, and John Walker.