Grand Masters of the United Grand Lodge of England [ugle] and of Scotland

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collections/advanced_search.php?objectId=8209

The Earl of Morton was both rich and learned; he was President of the Royal Society in London, a member of the Académie Française, and one of the first Trustees of the British Museum. This portrait was commissioned for the family's new house at Dalmahoy, not far from Edinburgh. The Earl is seen with his first wife, Agatha Halyburton, and their children. Sholto, aged seven, holds a bow and arrow, James, aged four, is still dressed in skirts, and three-year old Mary proudly displays her carved wooden doll. The eldest daughter, Frances, on the left, died shortly before the picture was completed, and baby George, on his mother's lap, did not survive childhood.

m1. Agatha Halyburton Married Bef 1731 Children

> 1. Sholto Charles Douglas, 15th Earl of Morton, b. 1732, Edinburgh [GM Premier GL 1757-81]

2. Lady Mary Douglas, b. 1748

m2. Bridget Heathcote, b. 1723, Rutland Married 31 Jul 1755 St.James's Sq, Westminster Children

> 1. Lady Bridget Douglas

> 2. Hon. John Douglas, b. 1 Jul 1756
BIOGRAPHY
From 1730 until 1738 he was styled Lord Aberdour and from then onwards he was Earl of Morton. Before 1731 he married Agatha Halyburton, daughter of James Halyburton of Pitcur. On 18 May 1739 he became a Representative Peer for Scotland, which he was until he died. He was Grand Master Mason of Scotland 1739-1740 and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England March 1741 to April 1742.

He inherited the estates of Orkney in 1738. By act of Parliament, 16 March 1742, he obtained the absolute Lordship of Orkney and Shetland, but disposed of the same in 1766, for 63,000 pounds stirling, to the Dundas family. In 1745 he went to live in Paris with his wife and child. In 1746 he was imprisoned in the Bastille but after three months was allowed to return to England. His wife died in Edinburgh on 11 December 1748.

On 31 July 1755 he married Bridget Heathcote. In 1764 he became President of the Royal Society which he remained until he died on 12 October 1768, his widow surviving him by thirty-six years.
Lord Morton’ Hints

http://nationaltreasures.nla.gov.au/site/Treasures/item/nla.ms-ms9-113-s003
When HMB Endeavour set sail to observe the transit of Venus (1768–1771), the papers of its captain, Lieutenant James Cook, contained a list of suggestions from James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton (1702–1768) and president of the Royal Society, which had organised the government-funded voyage. Among them was advice on how to treat indigenous inhabitants of the lands they visited, some of which—against unwarranted use of firearms, for example—was unusual counsel in the 18th century.

Morton was a product of the Enlightenment, a natural philosopher, deeply interested in scientific matters.

Cook observed most of the Hints—but had he followed all of them, Mabo might not be a household word in Australia today.

Taking possession of the east coast of Australia, Cook overlooked two significant pieces of advice: ‘They [the Indigenous inhabitants] are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several Regions they inhabit’, and ‘No European Nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent’.

The full text of this 14 page document is on line at the above URL.

When Cook sailed past in 1770 he gave a name to this still unwritten land: Morton Bay XE "Morton Bay"  (after James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton , and misspelled by later cartographers as Moreton Bay).

In the holdings of the National Library of Scotland, in their principal additions to their collections [2001-2002], is listed a manuscript purchase [Acc 11958]:

Warrant, 1746, summoning James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton, to attend the trials for High Treason of Lords Kilmarnock, Cromartie and Balmerino [for their participation in the unhappy Jacobite Rebellion in 1745].
Note: The 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, William Boyd, husband of Lady Anne Livingston of Callendar, was executed 18 Aug 1746. [