Caroline Douglas

Caroline Douglas (1821 – 1904) was a Marchioness of Queensberry, and Irish nationalist benefactor. Early life and family Caroline Douglas was born Caroline Margaret Clayton in Ireland in 1821. Her father was English, Sir William Clayton, a retired British army general and one of the members of parliament for Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Her mother, Alice Clayton (born O'Donnell), was from County Mayo, and was a Roman Catholic, but despite this the couple's four children were raised as Anglicans. Douglas lived in Bantry, County Cork, until the age of two, when the family moved to England to the family seat of Harleyford House, Buckinghamshire. This house was regularly visited by royalty and politicians, including Napoleon III. When her father refused to give his consent for her to marry Archibald Douglas, Lord Drumlanrig, the couple eloped and were married at Gretna Green on 28 May 1840. The couple went on to have five sons and two daughters: Gertrude, John, Francis, Archibald, and twins James and Florence. One son died in infancy. Their marriage suffered, due to her husband's gambling and adultery. Roman Catholicism The Marquess died in 1858 in a hunting accident, leaving his widow to live what has been described as a "restless life." She travelled between fashionable resorts in Britain and Europe and the Douglas estate, Glen Stuart, in Dumfries, Scotland. In 1861 she converted to Roman Catholicism, shocking her family. She became aware that her mother-in-law planned to take her children away from her, prompting her to flee to France with her youngest children, Archibald, then twelve, and Florence and James, aged seven, where she could educate them as she wished. This led the children's guardians to threaten her with an action under English law to take her children away from her. The three were too young to choose a guardian under Scottish law. In the event, they remained in France for two years. Falconer Atlee, the British Consul at Nantes, offered them a place of safety when their first location was discovered, and the Emperor Napoleon III eventually extended Lady Queensberry his protection, ensuring that she could keep the custody of the three children. Eventually, it was agreed that Caroline would retain custody of her younger children, and they returned to England in 1864, when her mother-in-law's health started to decline. Archibald eventually became a Roman Catholic priest.