James Murray (British Army officer)

James Murray
Portrait of James Murray as a young man by Allan Ramsay (1742) (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh)
Born	January 21, 1721(1721-01-21) Ballencrieff, East Lothian Scotland
Died	June 18, 1794(1794-06-18) (aged 73) Battle, East Sussex, England
Allegiance	Great Britain
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1736-1789?
Rank	General
Unit	3rd Scots Regiment; Wynyard's Marines
Commands held	15th Regiment of Foot (1749-
Battles/wars	War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Cartagena de Indias (War of Jenkins' Ear), Siege of Ostend, Raid on Lorient French and Indian War: Raid on Rochefort, Siege of Louisbourg, Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Battle of Sainte-Foy Invasion of Minorca, 1781
Relations	Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank (brother) Patrick Ferguson (nephew)
Other work	governor, Province of Quebec (1760-1768) Governor of Minorca (1778-1782) Governor of Kingston-upon-Hull (1783)

James Murray (21 January 1721, Ballencrieff, East Lothian, Scotland – 18 June 1794, Battle, East Sussex) FRS was a British soldier, whose lengthy career included service as colonial administrator and governor of the Province of Quebec and later as Governor of Minorca from 1778 to 1782.

Early life

He was a younger son of Alexander Murray, 4th Lord Elibank, and his wife Elizabeth (Betty) Stirling. Educated in Haddington and Selkirk, he began his military career in 1736 in the 3rd Scots Regiment in Dutch service. In 1740 he served as a second lieutenant in Wynyard’s Marines, under his brother Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank, in the unsuccessful attack on Cartagena. He returned as a captain in 1742. He served as Captain of the grenadier company of the 15th Regiment of Foot during the War of the Austrian Succession, being severely wounded during the Siege of Ostend in 1745, and distinguishing himself in the Raid on Lorient in 1746. In December 1748, he married Cordelia Collier, of Hastings.

Canada

Further information: French and Indian War

James Murray purchased his majority in the 15th Regiment of Foot in 1749, and the lieutenant-colonelcy in 1751. He commanded his regiment in the Raid on Rochefort, 1757, defending Sir John Mordaunt in his subsequent court-martial. He commanded a battalion in the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg.

When Louisbourg was taken, Murray accompanied General Wolfe on a raiding expedition northwards in the Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign (1758). While Wolfe destroyed French settlements along the Gaspe Peninsula, Murray harried the French fishing settlements along Miramichi Bay. Part of the destruction included the homes and church at St. Anne's, now called Burnt Church.

Murray served under General James Wolfe at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759. He was the military commander of Quebec City after it fell to the British. Lévis managed to defeat Murray and the British in the Battle of Sainte-Foy in 1760, but he had to abandon the siege of Quebec due to a lack of supplies and the arrival of a British relief fleet.

He encouraged his favourite nephew Patrick Ferguson to follow him in a military career. He also assisted another nephew, Patrick Murray, illegitimate son of his brother, George.

In October 1760, he became military governor of the district of Quebec and became the first civil governor of the Province of Quebec in 1764. As governor he was sympathetic to the French-Canadians, favouring them over British merchants who came to settle in the wake of the conquest and allowed the continuance of French civil law. The dissatisfaction of British settlers led to his recall in 1766 (although he remained governor in name until 1768), but his precedents were preserved in the Quebec Act. Murray successfully argued for the Quebec Act to continue slavery in Quebec as it had existed under the French; an advertisement appeared in the Quebec Gazette in 1769 for a "negro woman, aged 25 years, with a mulatto male child... formerly the property of General Murray".

Minorca

Further information: Invasion of Minorca, 1781

Murray was lieutenant-governor and then governor of Minorca from 1774 to 1782. In 1780, he married, as his second wife, Ann Witham, daughter of the Consul-General there. During the American War of Independence, he defended Fort St. Philip, at Port Mahon, against a Franco-Spanish siege for seven months (1781–82), until forced to surrender. He was known as ‘Old Minorca’ Murray as a result.

He then returned to his home, Beauport Park, in Hollington, Sussex, where he died. Further honours came to him in his last years: he was appointed General, and Governor of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1783, and Colonel of the 21st Regiment in 1789.

Family

His first marriage had been childless, but by his second, he had six children (two of whom died in infancy):

• James Patrick Murray, later a Major General, who married Elizabeth Rushworth
• Cordelia Murray, who married Rev. Henry Hodges
• Wilhelmina Murray, married James, 4th Lord Douglas of Douglas
• George Murray (died in infancy)
• Elizabeth Mary Murray (died in infancy)
• Anne Harriet Murray

He and his wife also brought up his older brother Patrick, Lord Elibank’s illegitimate daughter Maria Murray.

James Murray in later life

Popular culture

Murray appears in the 2004 film Nouvelle-France in his role as Governor of the new-captured Quebec. He is portrayed by Michael Maloney.

See also

• Great Britain in the Seven Years War
• List of Governors General of Canada
• List of Lieutenant Governors of Quebec
• List of Governors of Minorca

References

• Browne, G. P. "Murray, James", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000
• Murray, Colonel Hon. Arthur C., The Five Sons of "Bare Betty", London, 1936.
• James Murray. Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1760
• James Murray. Report of the Government of Quebec in Canada, June 5, 1762
• William Draper. The Sentence of the Court-martial... for the Trial of the Hon. Lieut. Gen. James Murray, Late Governor of Minorca, on the Twenty-nine Articles Exhibited Against Him by Sir William Draper, London, 1783

External links

• National Battlefields Commission. The Plains of Abraham, Quebec, Canada.
• From the Warpath to the Plains of Abraham. Virtual Exhibition.

Government offices
Preceded by Jeffery Amherst	Governor of the Province of Quebec 1764–1768	Succeeded by Guy Carleton
Military offices
Preceded by John Mostyn	Governor of Minorca 1778–1782	Ceded to Spain
Preceded by Philip Honywood	Governor of Kingston-upon-Hull 1785–1794	Succeeded by The Marquess Townshend