Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/389

  Own Time; Wodrow's Hist. of the Kirk of Scotl.; Lauder of Fountainhall's Historical Notices, Balcarres's Memoirs, and Leven and Melville Papers (all in the Bannatyne Club); Luttrell's Brief Relation; General Mackay's Memoirs; Napier's Memorials of Dundee; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 147–8.]  MURRAY, JOHN, second and first  (1659–1724), eldest son of John, second earl and first marquis [q. v.], by his wife Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, third daughter of James, seventh earl of Derby, was born at Knowsley, Lancashire, on 24 Feb. 1659. During the lifetime of his father he was known as Lord John Murray, until on 27 July 1696 he was created Earl of Tullibardine. He accompanied his father with the 'highland host' to the western shires in 1678 (Letter in Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. viii. p. 34). On the arrival of the Prince of Orange he went to visit him in London, and notwithstanding the dubious attitude of his father, he seems to have done his best to further the interests of William in Atholl. When his father left 'his principality' for the south, he undertook to act as his delegate, and was at any rate desirous to prevent the clan joining Dundee. That he should prevent this was all that the government dared hope from his 'father's son;' but even in this he was unsuccessful. Dundee repeatedly wrote him urging him to hold the castle of Blair for King James, but receiving no answer, he induced Stewart of Ballochin, Atholl's confidential agent, to seize the castle in the name of the absent marquis. Lord John Murray then formally assembled fifteen hundred of the clan, with a view to induce or compel Stewart to deliver up the castle; but on learning that Lord John purposed to support William of Orange, the men immediately left their ranks, and after drinking success to King James from the water of the neighbouring river, returned to their homes. Murray thereupon endeavoured to dissuade General Mackay from his purposed march into Atholl, but in a despatch from Dunkeld on 26 July Mackay declared that if the castle was not in Murray's hands by the time he reached it he would have it, cost what it might, and would hang Ballochin over the highest wall (ib. p. 40), and that if Murray in anyway countenanced Stewart in holding out, he would burn it from end to end (ib.) In a later despatch on the same day Mackay ordered Murray to post himself in the entry of the pass on the side towards Blair (ib.) This order he obeyed, but was unable to muster under his command more than two hundred men, while large numbers of the clan afterwards joined the rebels under the command of his brother, Lord James Murray. The attitude of the clan roused serious doubts as to Lord John's sincerity, and Mackay wrote him : 'I can say little or nothing to your lordship's vindication, and as little to accuse you, except it bee by the practis of the kingdom who make the chiefs answerable for their clans and followers' (ib. p. 42). There can, however, be no doubt that Murray was entirely opposed to his brother's conduct, and was greatly embarrassed by it (ib. p. 43).

In 1693 Murray was appointed a commissioner to inquire into the massacre of Glencoe, and displayed great activity in securing evidence to bring its perpetrators to justice, affirming that it concerned 'the whole nation to have that barbarous action. . . laied on to the true author and contriver of it' (ib. p. 45). In 1694 he was given the command of a regiment, to be raised in the highlands. After the fall of Dalrymple, in 1694, he was appointed to succeed him as one of the principal secretaries of state for Scotland, along with the Earl of Seafield; and by patent, 27 July 1696, he was created Earl of Tullibardine, Viscount Glenalmond. and Lord Murray for life. From 1696 to 1698 he acted as lord high commissioner to parliament. Being, however, disappointed that Sir Hugh Dalrymple was made president of the session in preference to Sir William Hamilton of Whitlaw, to whom he practically promised the office 'for a considerable service he was to do in the Scots parliament,' he threw up the secretaryship on the ground that 'he could not justify his word given to him in any other way' (, Secret Memoirs, p. 104). He remained unreconciled to the government during the reign of William, opposing the laying on of cess, and proposing a reduction of the land forces. He was also a warm supporter of the Darien colonisation scheme. After the accession of Queen Anne he was sworn a privy councillor, and in April 1703 appointed lord privy seal. On 30 June of the same year he was created Duke of Atholl, Marquis of Tullibardine, Earl of Strathtay and Strathardle, Viscount of Balquhidder, Glenalmond, and Glenlyon, and Lord Murray, Balvaird, and Gask; and on 5 Feb. 1703-4 he was made a knight of the Thistle.

According to Lockhart, Atholl, in the parliament of 1703, 'trimmed between court and cavaliers, and probably would have continued to do so' but for the Queensberry plot (Papers, i. 73; see, second , and , twelfth ). The fact that Lovat owed his outlawry to the Atholl family was 