Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/376

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Murray
370
Murray

1060). Murray also expressed his readiness to accept Bothwell's challenge after the trial, placards being affixed to the Tolbooth to this effect, in his name. Should Bothwell decline to meet him on the ground of his rank, he further declared his readiness, with other five gentlemen, to 'prove by the law of arms that six of his followers were with him at that foul and barbarous murder' (Kirkcaldy to Bedford, entry 1034; Buchanan, History of Scotland, bk. xviii.) Murray also renewed at Carberry Hill his challenge to fight Bothwell [see under Murray, Sir William, of Tullibardine],

On 20 Dec. 1574 Murray had a grant of the lands of Dowald in Strathearn, Perthshire (Reg. Mag. Sig. 1546-80, entry 2342), and on 17 April 1582 he and his wife Agnes Lindsay had a grant of the lands of Tunygask, Fifeshire (ib. 1580-93, entry 392). During the ascendency of Arran he was summoned before the council, and declining to appear he was on 12 May 1584 denounced a rebel (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 665), and at a parliament held in the ensuing August sentence of forfeiture was passed against him (Calderwood, History, iv. 198), his lands of Dowald being on 8 Oct. conferred on David Beton (Reg. Mag. Sig. 1580-93, entry 742). On account, however, of the return of the banished lords from England, and the consequent fall of Arran, the sentence remained inoperative. Murray died some time before 13 March 1595-6, and left by his wife Agnes Lindsay, besides other children, a son John, who succeeded him (ib. 1593-1608, entry 418).

[Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot.; Reg. P. C. Scotl.; Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. reign of Elizabeth; Histories of Calderwood and Buchanan; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 146.]

T. F. H.


MURRAY, Sir JAMES, Lord Philiphaugh (1655–1708), of Philiphaugh, lord clerk register of Scotland, eldest son of Sir JohnMurray of Philiphaugh, by Anne, daughter of Sir Archibald Douglas of Cavers, was born in 1655. As member for Selkirkshire he sat in the convention of estates which assembled at Edinburgh 26 June 1678, and he was chosen member for the same county in 1681. He was also sheriff of Selkirk in succession to his father. On 18 Nov. 1680 he and Urquhart of Meldrum, a commander of the king's troops, brought complaints against each other before the privv council. Murray asserted that Urquhart had sought to interfere with his jurisdiction as sheriff and had threatened him with imprisonment, while Urquhart accused Murray of remissness in taking proceedings against the covenanters, and of declining to supply him with a list of those concerned in the rebellion. As power had only been granted to Urquhart to act as justice of the peace, and not to sit alone as magistrate, he had exceeded his prerogatives in interfering with the duties of Murray as sheriff, but the council declined to affirm that he had acted beyond his powers (Lauder of Fountainhall, Historical Notices, p. 277). On 21 Jan. 1681 the case was again brought before the council, and finally, on 6 Oct., the council found that Murray had 'malversed and been remiss in punishing conventicles,' and therefore they simply deprived him of his right of sheriffship of Selkirk, it not being heritable, but bought by King Charles from his father, and declared it was devolved in the king's hands to give it to any other (ib. p. 331). According to Lauder some said that 'seeing the Duchess of Lauderdale's courtship, by which he had stood, was now dried up, he came well off that he was not likewise fined' (ib.)

After the discovery of the Rye House plot Murray was, in September 1684, committed to prison. Being brought before the council on the 6th, and threatened with the boots, he made a confession and threw himself on the mercy of Queensberry (ib. p. 556), and on 1 Oct. he was liberated on bail of 1,000l. to appear when called (ib. p. 561). Subsequently, on application to the king, he and others received pardon, with the view of their testimony being used against the chief contrivers of the Rye House plot. He was a witness against Robert Baillie of Jerviswood [q. v.] on 23 Dec. 1684, and also against the Earl of Tarras on 5 and 6 Jan. 1685. His evidence was also adduced against Patrick Hume, first earl of Marchmont [q.v.], Pringle of Torwoodlie, and others, against whom sentence of forfeiture was passed in their absence.

After the revolution Murray was, on 28 Oct. 1689, made an ordinary lord of session, with the title Lord Philiphaugh, and he took his seat on 1 Nov. Subsequently he became the close political associate of James Douglas, second duke of Queensberry [q. v.], and he is described by George Lockhart as 'by very far the most sufficient and best man he trusted and advised with ' (Papers, i. 61 ; cf. Carstares, State Papers, pp. 381-4). On 3 Oct. 1698 Queensberry wrote to William Carstares expressing a wish that 'when his Majesty shall think to dispose of the other places now vacant' Philiphaugh might be made lord justice clerk, adding that 'besides being well qualified for the office' he had placed him under such obligation as he could 'in no other wise requite than by using his interest for his advancement' (ib.