Selkirk's separation from Prince Edward Island, with his focus on The Red River Colony, meant his agents on the Island were constantly improvising, dealing with misconceptions and criticisms, usually acting without direction. Criticism of Thomas Douglas first came from his settlers, unhappy that he was not keeping promises, they dealing through his estate managers. Of his son, Dunbar Douglas, 6th Earl of Selkirk, criticism came from the many factions in political engagement, with continuing questions of quit-rents, their fairness to tenants and of obligations of lot proprietorship. From their first to their last estate manager, the Douglas's expected much of them, accustomed as they were to loyal Scottish subordinates, their managers instead acting independently, ignoring their interests and the estate's accounts, almost inevitably acquiring their own priorities, pretensions, and political ambitions.