Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/421

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Murray
415
Murray

following a precedent set by Pontius Pilate. A sense of justice and regard for the memory of an old friend induced him to protest against Warburton's treatment of Bolingbroke (1754) in an anonymous letter (Warburton, Works, ed. 1787, vii. 555). A thanksgiving sermon, preached by his friend Bishop Johnson in Westminster Abbey 29 Nov. 1759, is said to have been written at Mansfield's dictation (cf. Holliday, Addenda).

Mansfield's decisions are reported by Burrow, Cowper, Sir William Blackstone, Douglas (Lord Glenbervie), and Durnford and East. A selection from them, entitled ‘A General View of the Decisions of Lord Mansfield in Civil Causes,’ was edited by William David Evans in 1803, London, 2 vols. 4to. A few of his speeches in parliament and judgments have been reprinted in pamphlet form. His ‘Outline of a Course of Legal Study’ is printed in the ‘European Magazine,’ March 1791–May 1792, in his life by Holliday, and in ‘A Treatise on the Study of the Law,’ London, 1797, 8vo. A manuscript poem by him, entitled ‘Ædes Blenhamianæ,’ is in the possession of Lord Monboddo (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. App. p. 680). ‘The Thistle, a Dispassionate Examine of the Prejudice of Englishmen in General to the Scotch Nation, and particularly of a late arrogant Insult offered to all Scotchmen by a Modern English Journalist,’ in a letter to the author of ‘Old England’ of 27 Dec. 1746, London, 8vo, has been attributed to Mansfield [cf. Willes, Sir John]. Letters from him to Warburton, Warren Hastings, the Dukes of Newcastle, and others are in the British Museum.

[The principal authorities are the Life of William, late Earl of Mansfield, by Holliday, 1797, with those in the Law Magazine, vols. iv. and v. 1830–1; Welsby's Eminent English Judges, 1846; Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia; Lord Campbell's Chief Justices; and Foss's Judges. See also Gent. Mag. 1738 p. 490, 1742 p. 603, 1784 pt. i. p. 317; Collins's Peerage (Brydges), iii. 402, v. 144–50; Douglas's Peerage, ‘Stormont;’ Alumni Westmonast.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Warburton's Works, ed. Hurd, 1811, i. 36; Lords' Journ. xxix. 209, 553, xxxv. 5; Law Review, ii. 314–15; Bubb Dodington's Diary, pp. 228 et seq.; Jenkinson's Collection of Treaties, iii. 59; Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, p. 580; Bedford Corresp. iii. 129; Lord Charlemont's Corresp. p. 22; Chatham Corresp. i. 159; Harris's Life of Lord Hardwicke, iii. 93; Grenville Papers; Horace Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, Memoirs of George II, ed. Holland, Memoirs of George III, ed. Le Marchant, and Journal of George III, ed. Doran; Parl. Hist.; Royal and Noble Authors, ed. Park, iv. 35; Howell's State Trials; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. and Illustr. of Lit.; Rockingham Memoirs, ed. Earl of Albemarle, i. 160, ii. 257; Works of Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol, 1782, i. 102, 127; Wraxall's Memoirs, ed. Wheatley; Ann. Reg. 1780, Chron. App.; Northcote's Life of Reynolds, ii. 98; Autobiography and Corresp. of Mrs. Delany, ed. Lady Llanover; Brougham's Historical Sketches; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iv. 500, 6th ser. iv. 165, v. 486; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers (Harl. Soc.); Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope.]

J. M. R.


MURRAY, WILLIAM HENRY (1790–1852), actor and manager, son of Charles Murray [q. v.], was born in 1790 at Bath, where as an infant he appeared as Puck, probably on 11 March 1794, when, for his father's benefit, 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' was played, with his sister as Titania. This sister, Maria, subsequently married Joseph Leathley Cowell [q. v.], and was mother of Samuel Houghton Cowell [q. v.] Another sister married Henry Siddons [q. v.] William accompanied his father to London, and played various small parts at Covent Garden under the Kemble management, beginning in 1803-4. To Charles Farley, the stage-manager at Covent Garden, Murray afterwards stated that he owed his training in stage management and the manipulation of theatrical spectacle. On 20 Nov. 1809 (not the 10th as in his own account) he made his first appearance in Edinburgh, with which he was subsequently associated for forty-two years. His brother-in-law, Henry Siddons, had secured the royal letters patent, and leaving the theatre in Shakspere Square, Edinburgh, had fitted up as a playhouse the Circus in Leith Walk. There until 1811 Murray filled many small parts, at first, according to his own confession, with very little success. His first part was Count Cassel in 'Lovers' Vows,' 20 Nov. 1809, and on 29 Nov. he was Sanguine in Dimond's 'Foundling of the Forest.' On 8 Jan. 1810 he produced, as stage-manager, the 'Tempest.' Murray was the original Red Murdoch, 15 Jan. 1811, in Eyres's dramatisation of the 'Lady of the Lake,' a part he resigned when on 18 March the play was replaced by the 'Knight of Snowdoun,' Morton's adaptation of the same poem. Murray had now removed with the company to the theatre in Shakspere Square. On 12 April 1815 Henry Siddons died, and Murray, on behalf of the widow, his sister, and her children, entered on the management, then in a crippled condition, beginning, according to a statement he put forth, with a debt of 3,100l., and a weekly expenditure of 230l. From the first he displayed much energy, and a summer engagement of Miss O'Neill was a great success. On the opening