The son of John Douglass and Brigit Senson or Semson, he was born at Yarm, Yorkshire, in December 1743, and at the age of thirteen he was sent to the English College, Douai.
The London District included the home counties, the West Indies with the exception of Trinidad, and the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
[2] The Catholic Relief Act, passed in June 1791, repealed the statutes of recusancy in favour of persons taking the Irish oath of allegiance of 1778[broken anchor].
The act likewise repealed the oath of supremacy imposed in the reign of William and Mary, as well as various declarations and disabilities, and it tolerated the schools and religious worship of Roman Catholics.
St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, owed its existence to Douglass, with its president Gregory Stapleton settling there with his students at his invitation from 15 August 1795, after their imprisonment during the French Revolution.