Douglas John

Douglas, John (1721-1807), Bishop of Salisbury, was the son of a shopkeeper in Fifeshire.

Educated at Dunbar and Oxford, he took orders, and was a -military chaplain in Flanders, being present in 1745 at the battle of Fontenoy. He was made bishop in 1791. Most of his writings were of a controversial nature, among them being a Defence of Milton ayainst the Cltarge of Plagiarism (1750) and Letters on the Criterion of Miracles, against Hume (1754). He also edited Captain Cook's journals. He was a member of the Royal Society, and Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries.