He was the third and youngest surviving son of John Douglas, an innkeeper in Hyde Park Road, London.
[1] On 17 November 1787 he was instituted to the rectory of Litchborough, Northamptonshire, on the presentation of Sir William Addington, and towards the end of that year he was appointed one of the Prince of Wales's chaplains.
He resigned Litchborough in 1799 on being presented by the lord chancellor, through the recommendation of the Earl of Egremont, to the rectory of Middleton, Sussex.
In 1795 he contributed to John Nichols's Leicestershire a plate of St Michael's Church, Coston engraved by himself.
[2] In January 1780 Douglas married Margaret, daughter of John Oldershaw of Rochester, Kent, an eminent surgeon in Leicester.