James Murray (British Army officer, born 1721)

He was a younger son of Alexander Murray, 4th Lord Elibank, and his wife Elizabeth (Betty) Stirling. His cousin with two children[2] was Alexander Murray who served in Nova Scotia. 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.

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 along with his brother Alexander.

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. Murray believed Wolfe's plan to land the army at Anse au Foulon was foolish and absurd, and succeeded "only by Providence".[3] 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. As a result the French managed to lay siege to Quebec but this had to abandoned 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. Patrick was the son of Murray's sister Anne who was married to Lord Pitfour.[4] He also assisted another nephew, Patrick Murray, illegitimate son of his brother, George.

Murray's successful part in the British advance on Montreal in which he pacified many of the French Canadians, showed his true worth as a military commander and a negotiator. On 5 September 1760, Murray signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Huron Nation, then residing at Lorette, near Quebec City. In 1990, that treaty was found by the Supreme Court of Canada to still be valid and binding on the Crown.[5]

Murray was lieutenant-governor from 1774 to 1778 and then governor of Minorca from 1778 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 (Royal North British) Fusiliers in 1789. His body was laid to rest in the apse of the now ruined Old St Helen's Church, Hastings.

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

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

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

• Anderson, Fred (2000), Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-375-40642-5
• Browne, G. P. "MURRAY, JAMES," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed 17 November 2015, online
• Chichester, Henry Manners (1894). "Murray, James (1725-1794)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Dreaper, James. "Murray, James (1722–1794)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19619. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Murray, Colonel Hon. Arthur C., The Five Sons of "Bare Betty", London, 1936.
• Scott, S. Morley. "Civil and Military Authority in Canada, 1764–17661." Canadian Historical Review 9#2 (1928): 117-136.
• Wrong, George. Canada and the American Revolution: the Disruption of the First British Empire. Toronto : MacMillan, 1935.

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