Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murray, Charles (1661-1710)
MURRAY, Lord CHARLES, first Earl of Dunmore (1660–1710), second son of John, second earl and first marquis of Atholl [q. v.], by Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, daughter of the seventh Earl of Derby, was born in 1660. On the enrolment in 1681 of General Thomas Dalyell's regiment of horse, now the Scots greys, Lord Charles Murray was appointed its lieutenant-colonel. He was also master of horse to Princess Anne. After the death of Dalyell he on 6 Nov. 1685 obtained the command of the regiment, and he was also about the same time appointed master of the horse to Mary of Modena, queen consort of James II. During 1684 he was engaged in the campaign in Flanders, and was present at the siege of Luxemburg (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. viii. p. 35). On 6 Aug. 1686 he was created by James II Earl of Dunmore, Viscount Fincastle, and Lord Murray of Blair, Moulin, and Tillemot. At the revolution he was deprived of all his offices. According to the Earl of Balcarres, the supporters of King James at the revolution depended chiefly on Lord Dunmore to influence his father, the Marquis of Atholl, against the convention (Balcarres, Memoirs, p. 35); and he states that Dunmore 'used all endeavours to keep him to his duty,' and also to further the cause of King James (ib.) Being suspected of intrigues againstthe government he was arrested about the same time as Balcarres (ib.), but on 16 Jan. 1690 was admitted to bail (Leven and Melville Papers, p. 372). On 16 May 1692 he was apprehended along with the Earl of Middleton [see Middleton, Charles, second Earl] in disguise at a quaker's in Goodman's Fields, near the Tower, and after examination was committed to the Tower (Lutrell, Short Relation, ii. 453).
After the accession of Queen Anne, Dunmore was sworn a privy councillor 4 Feb. 1703, and in the parliament of 21 May his patent was read and ordered to be recorded, whereupon he took his seat. Lockhart, who denounces him and Balcarres as 'wretches of the greatest ingratitude,' states that from the accession of Anne he remained a firm supporter of the court party (Papers, i. 64). He also declares the conduct of Dunmore especially to have been 'inexcusable,' since he had 'above five hundred pounds a year of his own, and yet sold his honour for a present which the queen had yearly given his lady since the late revolution' (ib.) He further affirms that he and Balcarres 'had no further ambition than how to get as much money as to make themselves drunk once or twice a day, so no party was much a gainer or loser by having or wanting such a couple' (ib. p. 65). In 1704 Dunmore was appointed one of a committee of parliament for examining the public accounts, and in September 1705 his services were rewarded by a gratuity. He gave constant support to the union with England. In 1707 he was appointed governor of Blackness Castle. He died in 1710.
By his wife Catherine, daughter of Richard Watts of Hereford, Dunmore had six sons and three daughters: James, viscount of Fincastle, who died unmarried in 1706; John, third earl of Dunmore; William, third earl; Robert, brigadier-general; Thomas, lieutenant-general; Charles; Henriet, married to Patrick, third lord Kinnaird; Anne, to John, fourth earl of Dundonald; and Catherine, to her cousin John, third lord Nairn. The second son, John, second earl of Dunmore, who had a somewhat distinguished career as a soldier, and fought at Blenheim as ensign, 13 Aug. 1704, and as lieutenant-general under the Earl of Stair at Dettingen in June 1743, was on 22 June 1745 appointed governor of Plymouth, and raised to the rank of full general. William, the third son, who became third Earl of Dunmore on the death of his brother in 1752, had been concerned in the rebellion of 1745, and sent a prisoner to London, but pleading guilty received a pardon.
[Balcarres's Memoirs and Leven and Melville Papers (both in the Bannatyne Club); Lockhart Papers; Luttrell's Short Relation; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 483-4.]