Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/380

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Murray
374
Murray

gadiers (Monckton and Townshend were the other two) under Wolfe in the expedition against Quebec. Wolfe appears to have had a high opinion of Murray, and singled him out for the most hazardous exploits of the campaign (Weight, Life of Wolfe, p. 501). Murray commanded the left wing of the army in the battle on the Plain of Abraham, 13 Sept. 1759, where Wolfe fell. The city surrendered on 18 Sept., when a council of war decided on its retention. Murray was left there with four thousand troops, while the rest of the army sailed away with the fleet, before the navigation of the St. Lawrence should be closed for the season. Murray spent the winter of 1759-1760 in active preparations for an expected siege, and his difficulties were numerous (cf. his manuscript journal from September 1759 to May 1760, printed by the Historical Society of Quebec in 1870). He was without funds, which had to be raised at 5 per cent, on the note of hand of the two senior officers ; drunkenness and thieving were rife among the soldiers, and had to be met by special measures ; sickness was very prevalent. Knox, who was one of the garrison, says that during the first nine months of the occupation they buried a thousand men, and had a daily average of an equal number sick, chiefly of scurvy (Knox, Hist. Account, vol. ii.) Murray established a number of outposts round the city, repaired the defences, and mounted 132 pieces of cannon of all sorts upon them. On 26 April 1760 the French commander, De Levis, landed in the vicinity with a very superior force, and was menacing the outposts at Lorette and St. Foix. On 28 April Murray marched out with two thousand men and twenty guns, and attacked the French at Sillery with great vigour, driving their first line in upon the second, and inflicting very heavy loss. The audacity of the attack with a force so inferior surprised the French ; but the British were outnumbered three to one, and after losing one-third of their number were driven back into the city, which was forthwith besieged by an army of fifteen thousand men. A plan of the battle, showing the country round about Quebec, is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 21686, ff. 61, 81). Walpole repeats the version of the affair current in London that Murray 'got into a mistake and a morass, and was enclosed, embogged, and defeated' (Walpole, Letters, iii. 317). The French batteries did not open upon the city until 11 May, and on 15 May De Levis, disheartened by the arrival in the St. Lawrence of a naval squadron under Lord Colville, and the destruction of the French ships by some of the advanced frigates, raised the siege and retired precipitately to Montreal, where he joined the troops under De Vaudreuil. In accordance with orders from General Amherst [see Amherst, Jeffrey, Lord Amherst], Murray embarked on 10 June 1760 with all his remaining effective troops, 2,500 in all, for Montreal, the only place of importance in Canada remaining in the hands of the French, whither columns from New York under Amherst, and from Crown Point under Colonel William Haviland [q. v.], were converging. After a tedious voyage Murray landed on the island of Montreal on 7 Sept., Haviland arrived the same evening, and Amherst the next day. On 13 Sept. 1760 De Vaudreuil's troops, which included all the French troops remaining in the country, laid down their arms, and the dominion of Canada passed to the victors.

Murray was appointed governor of Quebec 27 Oct. 1760 (War Office, Privy Council, p. 21). He had been made colonel-commandant of a battalion of the 60th royal Americans 18 Oct. 1759, and was promoted to major-general 10 July 1762. He was accused of harshness in his government, and his severity was contrasted with the conduct of General Thomas Gage (1721-1787) [q. v.], in command at Montreal. A report of his government by Murray in 1762 is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 21667). When Canada was finally ceded to Great Britain on the peace of 1763, Murray was appointed on 21 Nov. that year governor of Canada, a position he held till 1766. In September of the same year he suppressed, without resorting to extreme measures, a dangerous mutiny of the troops at Quebec, who, in consequence of a stoppage of supplies, threatened to march to New York and lay down their arms to General Amherst. During Murray's administration the forms of government and the laws to be observed in the new colony were promulgated ; but his efforts to alleviate the discontent of the conquered population met with only partial success. Representatives of the people were summoned to Quebec by the government in 1765 ; but the attempt to form a representative assembly failed, owing, it is said, to the objection of the Roman catholics to the test-oath imposed by statute. Murray's efforts to conciliate the French Canadians incensed the British settlers, who accused him of sacrificing their interests to French prejudices, and petitioned for his recall. An inquiry in the House of Lords after his return home in 1766 fully absolved Murray from these charges. His last years in Canada were troubled by the