The sitter was the eldest son of Sir William Douglas, 2nd Bt., great-grandson of Sir William Douglas, 1st Earl of Queensberry and 9th Baron of Drumlanrig, and his wife Helen, daughter of Col. John Erskine, Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle. He succeeded as 3rd Baronet on the death of his father in 1743. He married Christian, daughter of Sir William Cunningham of Caprington, and was succeeded by his eldest son William on his death in 1728.