James Douglas, 1st Earl of Morton

James Douglas (1426 – 22 October 1493), the 4th Lord of Dalkeith, was created the 1st Earl of Morton in 1458.

Life He was the son of James Douglas, 2nd Lord of Dalkeith and Elizabeth Gifford, daughter of James Gifford of Sheriffhall. His father resigned all his estates to James in 1456 when James became the 4th Lord of Dalkeith. James was created Earl of Morton in 1458 upon his marriage to Joan Stewart (1428-1493), the daughter of James I, King of Scots. She was a deaf-mute. The Earl of Morton apparently did not participate since he sat on the jury which convicted the Boyds.

The lands of Whittinghame and all rights over the barony of Morton, Dumfriesshire were resigned into the Earl's hands in 1473-4 and in that same year he recovered the lordship of Dalkeith increasing the Earls already vast estates. He re-endowed the collegiate church at Dalkeith his 3rd great-grandfather founded and he also founded St. Martha's Hospital in Aberdour in 1474.

The Morton Monument The Earl and Countess of Morton were buried together in the choir of the parish church of St. Nicholas Buccleuch, known as the Dalkeith Collegiate Church, in Dalkeith, south of Fife and east of Edinburgh, in Midlothian, Scotland. Known as the Morton Monument, their tombs are covered with their stone effigies, complete with their armorial bearings. The choir is now in the ruins, leaving the tombs out in the open, where, in a few centuries, the elements have erased their faces. Their hands, pressed together in prayer, were likely to have been destroyed during the Reformation. Today, as one of the visitors remarked, "nce crisply carved and detailed with heraldic devices", the tombs have "the look of sand sculptures after the tide has washed in and retreated". Due to their historical value, in 2005 a team of volunteers and preservationists created a protective canopy over their effigies.

Family He and his wife Princess Joan were the parents of:

Sir John Douglas, 2nd Earl of Morton. James, appeared in several writs 1466–1480. Janet, married bef. 1 February 1490–1 to Sir Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell. Elizabeth, she was mentioned in a charter of 1479.