DOUGLAS, JOHN [SSNE 901]
Text source
John Douglas served as a chaplain to to the Scots Brigade in the Dutch Republic. He had been ordained in the Kirk of Stirling in 1606 as minister of the Scots Brigade in the service of the low countries, where he served at the English reformed church of Amsterdam. He had been accepted as a member of the Classis of Utrecht and had subscribed to the Dutch Reformed confession. By 1621 he was in St Andrews and became a Doctor of Divinity the following year. Apparently he left Utrecht at that time as he had been accused of being an Arminian, which he denied. He is probably the same as the preacher who arrived in Kedany, Lithuania in 1637. It is not known how long he remained in Kedany, but it is known that he preached in the Scots language.
Sources: L. Eriksonas, 'The lost colony of Scots: unravelling overseas connections in a Lithuanian town' in A.I. Macinnes, T. Riis, and F. Pedersen eds. Ships, Guns and Bibles in the North Sea and Baltic States, c. 1350-c. 1700 (East Linton, 2000), pp.176-177; A. C. Dow, Ministers to the Soldiers of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1962), p.63; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), p.66.
Service record
- THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, SCOTS BRIGADE
- Arrived 1606-01-01, as CHAPLAIN
- Departed 1620-12-31, as CHAPLAIN
- Capacity CHAPLAIN, purpose MILITARY, ECCLESIASTICAL
- SCOTLAND, ST ANDREWS
- Arrived 1621-01-01
- Departed 1622-12-31
- Capacity MINISTER, purpose ECCLESIASTICAL
- LITHUANIA, KEDANY
- Arrived 1637-01-01
- Capacity PREACHER, purpose ECCLESIASTICAL
- ,