Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/370

 the colonelcy of the 7th battalion of the 60th regiment to that of the 72nd foot. On his return home in 1818 he was appointed governor of Edinburgh Castle. In August 1819 he was made governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, a post he held until 1824. On 14 June 1820, the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. In September 1823 he was transferred to the colonelcy of the 42nd royal highlanders, and the same year was returned to parliament in the tory interest as member for Perth county. In January 1824 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and the following March was appointed lieutenant-general of the ordnance. In March 1825 he went to Ireland as commander-in-chief of the forces, and was promoted lieutenant-general on 27 May. He held the Irish command until May 1828, when he was made a privy councillor on taking office as secretary of state for the colonies in the Duke of Wellington's administration. He held the post until November 1830. In September 1829 he was appointed governor of Fort George, North Britain.

At the general election of 1832 he was defeated at Perth, but regained the seat at a by-election in 1834. On his appointment as master-general of the ordnance he again lost the election, and did not again sit in parliament, although he contested Westminster in 1837, and Manchester in 1838 and 1841. He, however, continued to hold office as master-general of the ordnance until 1846. He was promoted general on 23 Nov. 1841, and was transferred to the colonelcy of the 1st royals in December 1843. He died at his residence, 5 Belgrave Square, London, on 28 July 1846, and was buried beside his wife in Kensal Green cemetery on 5 Aug.

He married, in 1826, Lady Louisa Erskine, sister of the Marquis of Anglesea, and widow of Sir James Erskine, by whom he had one daughter, who married his aide-de-camp, Captain Boyce, of the 2nd life guards. His wife died 23 Jan. 1842.

Murray was a successful soldier, an able minister, and a skilful and fluent debater. For his distinguished military services he received the gold cross with five clasps for the Peninsula, the orders of knight grand cross of the Bath, besides Austrian, Russian, Portuguese, and Turkish orders.

He was the author of: 1. 'Speech on the Roman Catholic Disabilities Relief Bill,' 8vo, London, 1829. 2. 'Special Instructions for the Offices of the Quartermaster-general's Department,' 12mo, London, and 3. edited 'The Letters and Despatches of John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, from 1702 to 1712,' 8vo, London, 5 vols. 1845. These letters were accidentally discovered in October 1842, on the removal to the newly built muniment room at Blenheim of a chest which had long been lying at the steward's house at Kensington, near Woodstock.

 MURRAY, GIDEON,  (d. 1621), of Elibank, deputy treasurer and lord of session, was third son of Sir John Murray of Blackbarony, Peeblesshire, by Griselda, daughter of Sir John Bethune of Creich, Fifeshire, and relict of William Scott younger of Branxholm, Roxburghshire, ancestor of the Scotts, dukes of Buccleuch. The Murrays of Blackbarony claim an origin distinct from the other great families of the name of Murray, and trace their descent from Johan de Morreff, who in 1296 swore allegiance to Edward I of England. His supposed great-grandson, John de Moravia, or Moray, is mentioned in a charter of 14 March 1409-10 as possessing the lands of Halton-Murray, or Blackbarony, and from him the Murrays of Blackbarony descend in a direct line.

Sir Gideon of Elibank was originally designated of Glenpoyt or Glenpottie. He studied for the church, and in an act of the privy council of 25 April 1583 is mentioned as chanter of Aberdeen (Reg. P. C. Scotl. p. 564). According to Scot of Scotstarvet, he gave up thoughts of the church because he killed in a quarrel a man named Aichison. For this he was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, but through the interposition of the wife of the chancellor Arran he was pardoned and set at liberty (Staggering State, ed. 1872, p. 65). Afterwards he became chamberlain to his nephew, Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh, and had charge of his affairs during his absence in Italy (ib. p. 66). On 14 Oct. 1592-3 he became surety for William Scott of Hartwoodmyres and other borderers (Reg. P. C. Scotl. v. 733). On 15 March 1593-4 he had a charter of the lands of Elibank, Selkirkshire, with a salmon fishing in the Tweed (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1593-1608, entry 235). In the fray of Dryfe Sands on 7 Dec. 1593 between the Scotts and the Johnstones, in which John, seventh or eighth lord Maxwell [q. v.], was slain, Murray was present with five hundred of the Scotts, and carried their laird's standard (Staggering State, p. 66). Along with other border chiefs he in October 1602 signed the general band against border thieves (Reg. P. C. Scotl. vi. 828).

After the accession of James to the 