The following extract from the book The Genealoy of the Existing British Peerage with Brief Sketches of the Family Histories of the Nobility, by Edmund Lodge Esq., published in London in 1832.

SELKIRK, EARL OF. (Douglas.)

Peer of Scotland.

Lord William Douglas, 3rd son of William, 1st Marquis of Douglas, was created, in 1646, Earl of Selkirk, Lord Daer and Shortcleuch; in 1660 he was created Duke of Hamilton for life, his wife Anne having succeeded her uncle as Duchess of Hamilton; and in 1688 he resigned the Earldom of Selkirk, which was granted, with the precedency of the former patent, to his 3rd son Lord Charles Douglas, and his issue male; which failing, to his younger sons, Lords John, George, Basil, and Archibald Hamilton, and their issue male; all now extinct, except the present Earl, descended from Lord Basil. The Duke of Hamilton, 1st Earl of Selkirk, d. in 1694, having had the seven sons following:

1. James, 4th Duke of Hamilton, whose descendant and heir male is the present Duke of Hamilton and Brandon.

2. Lord William, who d. in France without issue, probably before the patent of 1688.

3. Lord Charles, who in 1688 became 2nd Earl of Selkirk ; he d. without issue 13 March 1739, and was succeeded by his next brother,

4. Lord John, created a Peer of Scotland in 1697 by the titles of Earl of Ruglen, Viscount Riccartoun, and Lord Hillhouse, with remainder to the heirs whatsoever of his body ; he succeeded his brother Charles as 3rd Earl of Selkirk, and d. in 1744, without surviving issue male; his only child, who left issue, was Lady Anne, his eldest daughter, who succeeded as Countess of Ruglen; she was mother of William, 4th Duke of Queensberry, and 3rd Earl of Ruglen, on whose death without issue in 1810, that Earldom became extinct.

5. Lord George, created a Peer of Scotland in 1696, by the titles of Earl of Orkney, Viscount of Kirkwall, and Baron of Dechmont, with remainder to the heirs whatsoever of his body; he d. without issue male, in 1737, before his elder brothers, and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Anne, who carried the Earldom of Orkney, by marriage, to the Irish family of O'Brien, Earl of Inchiquin ; she was grandmother of the present Countess of Orkney.

6. Lord Basil, he was drowned in the autumn of 1701 in the Minnock, a small river of Galloway, when about to cross it with his brother the Earl of Selkirk, and other friends; a servant who rode forward to try the ford having been dismounted by the unexpected strength of the current, Lord Basil rushed in to save him, but his horse falling, both were carried away by the torrent before his brother or friends could render any assistance. He left two sons: William, the eldest, succeeded to his estate, and dying young soon after, was succeeded by his only surviving brother Basil Hamilton, of Baldron; he engaged in the Rebellion of 1715, was taken prisoner at Preston, after, signalizing his valour in the battle, was tried for high treason, and condemned to death, but pardoned, and restored in blood by Act of Parliament in 1732. He d. in 1742, leaving an only son, Dunbar, who succeeded his great-uncle John, Earl of Selkirk and Ruglen, as 4th Earl of Selkirk in 1744, and resumed his original family name of Douglas. On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1745 he exerted himself with the greatest zeal on behalf of the established government. He d. in 1799, having had issue, Sholto-Basil, Lord Daer, who d. an infant in 1760 ; Basil-William, Lord Daer, who d. in 1794 unm. in his thirtieth year, having given the highest hopes of talent and patriotism; John, who succeeded as Lord Daer; Dunbar, a Captain in the Navy; and Alexander, a Captain in the Army, who all three d. unm. at nearly the same time; David, and two daughters who d. young; Lady Isabella, who d. unm. 6 Sept. 1830 ; the three daughters named in the The Peerage Volume; and Thomas, 7th and youngest who succeedeed his father as 3th Earl in 1799, and is remarkable for the settlement formed by him on Prince Edward's Isle in the Gulph of St. Lawrence : he d. in 1820 and was suceeded by his only son Dunbar-James, present and 6th Earl.

7. Lord Archibald, b 1673, and d. 5 April 1754, leaving three sons of whom the last survivor, The Rev. Frederick Hamilton, d. without surviving issue male in 1811.