James Pulteney

Born James Murray, he was the eldest son of Colonel Sir Robert Murray, 6th Baronet and his first wife Janet Murray, a younger sister of Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank.[2] Murray succeeded his father as baronet in 1771, while still a minor.[2] He was educated at Westminster School and joined then the British Army.[3]

Murray had had his first commission purchased in his mid-teens, as lieutenant in the 19th Regiment of Foot in 1770.[3] Already a year later, he became captain in the 57th Regiment of Foot.[4] He left for Europe in 1772 and having spent the time travelling, he returned to his regiment in Ireland in November 1775.[3] With begin of the next year, Murray embarked for The Colonies to serve in the American War of Independence.[4] He was wounded at the ankle during the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, and shared his convalescence with his cousin Patrick Ferguson.[5] Soon after recovering, he was shot through the thigh at the Battle of White Marsh in November.[5]

Murray purchased a majorship in 1778, serving with the 4th Regiment of Foot in the West Indies and was involved in the Battle of St Lucia.[4] He became lieutenant-colonel of the 94th Regiment of Foot in 1780[6] and on the regiment's disbandment after three years was set on halfpay.[4] In 1789, he was transferred to active duty and was appointed an aide-de-camp to King George III of the United Kingdom, ranked as a colonel.[7] Murray was sent to Koblenz, the headquarters of the allied forces against the French Revolutionary Armies.[3] He was attached as adjudant to the Frederick, Duke of York in April 1793, fighting in Flanders,[8] and was promoted to major-general in December.[9] In 1794, he received command of the 18th Regiment of Foot[10] and led his regiment to suppress the Irish Rebellion of 1798.[3] A year thereafter, in June 1799 Pulteney (he had taken the name of Pulteney in 1794) was made a lieutenant-general[11] and in November was wounded in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, having been second in command.[12] He commanded the Ferrol Expedition in August 1800 and sailed then to Gibraltar, before returning to England.[4] He became General Officer Commanding Eastern District in 1805.[13] In 1808 he became a full general.[14]

In 1790, he entered the British House of Commons, sitting as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis until his death in 1811.[3] Murray-Pulteney was sworn off the Privy Council in 1807, when he became Secretary at War, a post he held for two years.[3]

On 24 July 1794, he married Henriette Laura Pulteney, 1st Baroness Bath, daughter of his cousin Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet in Bath House, London.[15] Two days before he had by Royal Licence assumed the surname Pulteney only to inherit his wife's relative Harry Pulteney.[16] Henrietta was raised to a countess in her own right in 1803[17] and inherited also the estates of her father in 1805, worth about £50,000 per year.[18] She predeceased her husband in 1808 and Murray survived her for three years, dying in Buckenham in Norfolk, from complications after losing an eye when a powder flask accidentally exploded in his face.[19] He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his halfbrother John.[2]

• James Murray (ed. E. Robson), Letters from America 1773 to 1780: Being the letters of a Scots officer, Sir James Murray, to his home during the War of American Independence, Manchester, 1951