Charles Douglas (1698-1778) was a courtier and politician who held both the Scottish title of 3rd Duke of Queensberry and English title of 2nd Duke of Dover. Following his Grand Tour in 1719, Queensberry tried to take his seat in the House of Lords but was refused entry on the premise that no peers of Scotland could sit by virtue of a British peerage. In 1720, he married his second cousin Lady Catherine Hyde (1701-1777) who was a major figure in her own right as a literary patron and socialite.

Queensberry became a courtier of King George I and held the posts of Lord of the Bedchamber (1721), Vice-Admiral of Scotland (1722) and Privy Councillor (1726) before his wife’s outrage at the Lord Chamberlain’s refusal to license the performance of John Gay’s Polly (which satirised Sir Robert Walpole) resulted in her being barred from court by George II and Queensberry to resign from his offices. Queensberry joined the opposition and served as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1733. Queensberry regained his place on the Privy Council after the accession of George III, and became keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland in 1761-63 and Lord Justice-General in 1763-78.

They lived mostly in England, although Queensberry would periodically return to Scotland to take part in local politics in Dumfriesshire and Dumfries burghs. Queensberry sought to promote Scottish economic development as a major landlord and was also the Chairman of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company and a major backer of the Ayr Bank. He died in 1778 and was buried at Durisdeer, Dumfriesshire.

Robert Adam was commissioned by the Commissioners of Supply of the County of Dumfries in 1779 to make designs for a commemorative column to the Duke of Queensberry . The contractor was Thomas Boyd. The design comprises a square pedestal with ram’s heads in each corner and a panel relief depicting a woman (the personification Scotland) mourning over an urn, and above, a tall column which supports a casket with gilded flames. An additional plan and elevation of the column base is included in an Adam office design (dated 7^th April 1780) in the RIBA Drawings Collection.

The column was placed in Queensberry Square, in the centre of Dumfries in 1780. The column was re-erected in 1934, under the supervision of Alexander Crombie, in the forecourt of the County Buildings on English Street. The monument was moved back to Queensberry Square in 1990.

Literary references:
A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp. 10, 84; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 363, 371; J. Gifford, The Buildings of Scotland: Dumfries and Galloway, 1996, p. 253; W. C. Lowe, ‘Douglas, Charles, third duke of Queensberry and second duke of Dover (1698–1778)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, 2009, online [accessed 09 May 2022]; Historic Environment Scotland, ‘English Street, Queensberry Column (in Front of Regional Council Offices)’, 1961, online [accessed 09 May 2022]

Louisa Catt, 2023