The Native Douglas: Reassessing the Origins of the House of Douglas from the Kelso, Glasgow, and Paisley Registers (1147 – 1176)

This paper reassesses the earliest evidence for the House of Douglas within the monastic and episcopal registers of Kelso, Glasgow, and Paisley (1147 – 1176). Contrary to the long-standing view that the Douglases were a Flemish creation, the primary charters reveal a Gaelic-Cumbric administrative base that predates any continental overlay. Through textual analysis of the Liber S. Marie de Calchou, Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, and Paisley Cartulary, the study demonstrates that the earliest William de Douglas appears amid native Clydesdale officials and clerics rather than imported settlers. The Douglas name thus represents a local continuity of governance and language rooted in the restored parish of Lesmahagow, not an alien transplant from Flanders.