The papers consist of logs, 1734 to 1736, 1739, 1741, 1745, 1760 to 1762; order books, 1760 to 1763, 1774 to 1777; letterbooks, 1760 to 1762; a private account book for Douglas's estates, 1766 to 1770, and a list of dispositions for the ships of the squadron, 1760 to 1761.

Administrative / biographical background
Douglas saw early service in the IPSWICH, 1734 to 1735, and in the SALAMANDER, 1739. He became a lieutenant in 1732, a captain in 1744 and in 1745, in the VIGILANT, was present at the capture of Louisburg. In 1760, in the DUBLIN, he commanded a squadron in the Leeward Islands and in the following year led a successful expedition to capture the island of Dominica. When Admiral Rodney (1719-1792) relieved him in the Leeward Islands in 1761, he was given command of the Jamaica Squadron and was with Rodney as his second-in-command at the capture of Martinique, 1762. He was made rear-admiral in the same year and became a vice-admiral in 1770. From 1773 to 1776 he was Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, flying his flag in the BARFLEUR and the RESOLUTION and was made an admiral in 1778. Douglas was Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland, 1754 to 1768. In the records of the UK government's Slave Compensation Commission, Douglas has been identified as the owner of the Weilburg Plantation, and presumably the enslaved people on it, in Demara, Guyana from around 1762. Douglas was also listed as a beneficiary in the will of one Mary McNemara, who left him her estates in Antigua in 1778 (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146653093).