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

This study re-examines the earliest documentary evidence for the Douglas lineage to demonstrate that it arose from a native Gaelic–Cumbric administrative culture, not from Flemish settlement. Using the Liber S. Marie de Calchou, the Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, and the Registrum Moraviense, it reconstructs an unbroken ecclesiastical and territorial chain — Herbert → Enguerrand → Jocelin → William de Douglas — that linked Lesmahagow, Douglas Water, and Kelso between 1147 and 1176. The findings establish that the Douglas name was embedded in local governance and hydronymic tradition long before feudal colonisation, revealing the House of Douglas as a native product of the Clyde–Strathclyde continuum. Douglas, Sean (2025). The Native Douglas: Reassessing the Origins of the House of Douglas from the Kelso, Glasgow, and Paisley Registers (1147 – 1176). Douglas – Clyde – Arthur Research Series. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17392223