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MCDOUALL, Andrew (1758-1834), of Culgroat, Wigtown.
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Family and Education
b. 7 Dec. 1758, o.s. of John McDouall of Logan, Wigtown by Helen, da. of George Buchan of Kelloe, Berwick. educ. privately; Grand Tour 1781. m. 9 Jan. 1796, Mary, da. of James Russell of Dumfries, 2s. suc. fa. 27 Feb. 1799.
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Biography
In 1781 Andrew McDouall departed on the grand tour with a letter of introduction to Robert Murray Keith from William McDowall of Garth-land, recommending him as ‘a young friend in whom he was very warmly interested’ and the son of ‘a gentleman of very considerable fortune in Galloway’.1 At the general election of 1784 Andrew and William conditionally gave the combined Logan and Garthland family interests in Wigtownshire to Keith Stewart who, on being appointed receiver of the land tax, fulfilled the electoral bargain and secured McDouall’s return as his successor.2
In Parliament McDouall, who had a family connexion with Henry Dundas, was an inconspicuous Government supporter, but in 1786 became notorious as the seducer of ‘bonnie Peggy Kennedy’, a young girl of good family, whose lament for her ‘fause lover’ was immortalized by Burns in ‘Ye Banks and Braes’. She subsequently raised an action against McDouall for declarator of marriage and the legitimacy of her child, but died before the case was decided. The court of session eventually decreed there was no marriage but ordered McDouall to pay £3,000 to his illegitimate daughter.
It would be appropriate if Andrew and not William was the ‘Mr. MacDowall’ who on 23 May 1786 moved the deferment of the Scottish rogue bill.3 McDouall did not vote on Richmond’s fortifications plan, 27 Feb. 1786, nor on Impey’s impeachment, 9 May 1788, but voted with Administration on the Regency question.
He died 3 May 1834.
