James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, 3rd Earl of Avondale Knight of the Order of the Garter was a Scottish nobleman, last of the "Black" earls of Douglas.
Background
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.
Career
She was a deaf-mute. lieutenant appears, however, that this pledge was intended to draw the Earl of Morton into a conspiracy that included the Bishop, Lord Boyd and his party. The Earl of Morton apparently did not participate since he sat on the jury which convicted the Boyds. Bishop Graham was later excommunicated and deposed.
The lands of Whittinghame and all rights over the barony of Morton, Dumfriesshire were resigned into the Earl"s hands in 1473-1474 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 Saint Martha"s Hospital in Aberdour in 1474. The Earl and Countess of Morton were buried together in the choir of the parish church of Saint 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. Sir John Douglas, 2nd Earl of Morton.
James, appeared in several writs 1466-1480.
Janet, married bef. 1 February 1490-1491 to Sir Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell. Elizabeth, she was mentioned in a charter of 1479.