Robert Martin Douglas (1849-1917) was the son of Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, celebrated U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate in 1860, and Martha Denny (Martin) Douglas of Rockingham County, North Carolina. Mrs. Douglas was the daughter of Robert and Mary (Settle) Martin, consequently niece of Judge Thomas Settle (1789-1857) and Elizabeth (Settle) Reid, and cousin-german to Judge Thomas Settle (1831-1888) and Governor David Settle Reid (1831-1891). Mrs. Douglas died in January, 1853, leaving her sons Robert M. and. Stephen A. in the care of their grandmother, Mary (Settle) Martin. Upon the senator's remarriage in 1856 to Adele Cutts (great-niece of Dolly Payne Madison), the boys returned to Washington, and remained in her care following the death of their father in 1861. Robert became a Catholic and was educated in Loyola College and Georgetown University. Upon graduation in 1867, he paid a visit to his mother's family where he formed a strong affection for and alliance with Thomas Settle, his cousin at one remove. Stephen A. continued his studies at Georgetown University and did not come to Rockingham County until 1869.

In July, 1868, Robert M. Douglas was appointed private secretary to Governor William Woods Holden, and in March, 1869, he resigned to accept the appointment as private secretary to President Grant. He held the latter office until March, 1873, when he was appointed marshal in the newly created Western District of the U.S. Circuit Court and settled in Greensboro.

Douglas had intended attending Judge Pearson's law lectures at Richmond Hill upon his graduation from Georgetown University, but put off his legal studies in favor of his appointments as private secretary. Some while after his marriage to Jessie Madeleine Dick in 1874, he read law under his father-in-law, Judge Robert Paine Dick, in Greensboro, and qualified for the bar in 1885. In 1896 Douglas was elected on the Republican ticket to a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, where he remained despite Democratic Party efforts to dislodge him from the bench. Upon expiration of his term in 1905, Douglas left the Supreme Court and returned to his law practice in Greensboro. In addition to his practice, he was an active businessman and organized the chamber of commerce in Greensboro. He was a director of the Greensboro Loan and Trust Company until his death in 1917.