Andrew Snape Douglas

Andrew Snape Douglas was born in Edinburgh on 8 October 1761, the son of Dr. William Douglas, a medical doctor from Springfield in Fife, and Lydia Hamond, daughter of a London merchant and shipowner. William Douglas's death in 1770 led Andrew to sign on that year aboard his maternal uncle Sir Andrew Snape Hamond's ship, the 32-gun frigate . ==Command==

The Roebuck was ordered home in July 1781, but Douglas remained in American waters, having been given command of the 54-gun . He was in command of the 32-gun , which had been appointed the guard ship at Weymouth, when the town was visited by King George III. Douglas conducted the King on his first voyage aboard a warship, and on 13 September 1789 King George appointed Douglas a knight bachelor. Also in 1789 Douglas and his uncle Snape Hamond were members of the court for the court martial of the mutineers of the Bounty. Douglas was then in command of the 74-gun from 1790. ==French Revolutionary Wars==

's ''Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June. The Queen Charlotte'', under Douglas's command and flying the flag of Lord Howe, engages the French. The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793 led to Douglas being appointed to command the 38-gun frigate . Lord Howe arranged for Douglas to be commodore in charge of the fleet's frigates, occasionally sending him on detached cruises. He commanded his ship at the Battle of Groix in 1795, earning private praise for his courage in leading his ship whilst heavily outnumbered, but little public reward. ==Personal life and later years==

'' by Mather Brown, 1794. Snape Douglas is standing on the far right Douglas had married Anne Burgess on 14 November 1781 in British-occupied New York City. They had one son and two daughters: Anne Hammond Douglas, who married Sir George Bowyer, and Harriet Douglas. He had begun to suffer increasing ill health, complaining of persistent headaches, which eventually forced him to end his career at sea. He moved ashore but died on 4 June 1797. ==Legacy==

An engraving of Douglas is in the collection of the British National Portrait Gallery. There are several other images of Douglas; he appears in several paintings by Mather Brown and in a portrait by modern maritime artist Irwin Bevan. Douglas is primarily known today through his letters to his uncle. ==Notes==