George Douglas (1749-1799)

He was the son of a tenant farmer in Scotland and came to America from Scotland with his three brothers. Having established their fortune, the three brothers returned to Scotland and George remained in New York to look after their American interests. On their return, they established the firm of Douglas & Shaw, Merchants, of No. 1 America Square, London. His eldest brother, Sir William Douglas, started life as a pedlar and became a Baronet and their business partner, Sir James Shaw, was a fellow Scot who became Lord Mayor of London. George was described by Marian (Gouverneur) Campbell as, "a Scotch merchant who hoarded closely. His wine cellar was more extensive than his library." He was known as a hard worker and very successful, but was "not a man of culture". His wife on the other hand was socially ambitious and "anxious to entertain the best of New York Society". She was the daughter of Peter Corne, an English privateer who settled at Peekskill and married the daughter and heiress of James Henderson whose home "Greenwich" now constitutes Greenwich Village, New York.

George's wife, Margaret, inherited 5,000-acres of her grandfather's original 16,000-acre land grant in the Mohawk Valley and in 1787 she and George cleared and surveyed part of the land at King's Ferry on the Hudson River and built a 24-room summer house there. They were the parents of five children including the famously headstrong Mrs Harriet Cruger. Another daughter, Elizabeth, married the nephew of U.S. President James Monroe.