Basil William Douglas

Basil William Douglas, Lord Daer FRSE (1763-1794) was a Scottish nobleman who, in his short life, developed a reputation as an agricultural improver and an advocate of parliamentary reform.

While studying lodged with his teacher moral philosopher Dugald Stewart,[1] one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, and a renowned populariser of the work of Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith.

Though a strong critic of the English-Scottish union of 1707, Daer called for English and Scottish radical societies to work together 'to have mutually beneficial results: providing Scots with greater say in government while relieving you of that vermin from this country who infect your court, parliament and every establishment".

[4] At the national Convention of reform societies held in Edinburgh in December 1792 he clashed with Thomas Muir of the Friends of the People over his presentation of an address from the United Irishmen.

[5] Daer's political career, however, was cut short when he died, unmarried, from tuberculosis on 5 November 1794 at Ivybridge, Devon; he was buried in Exeter Cathedral.