Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/396

 kenzie had been in command since the retirement of General [q. v.] in the previous November. Wellington suggested the recapture of Tarragona,' which with the means at your command should not be a difficult operation (ib. vi. 389, letter dated 29 March 1813). The French under Suchet attacked Murray in a strong position at Castalla, vhither he had advanced, and were defeated by him on 13 April 1813. On 31 May 1813 Murray sailed from Alicante, and on 3 June disembarked before Tarragona. He had then at his disposal, including Spaniards, a force of twelve thousand men, of whom only 4,500 were British and Germans. On the approach of Suchet to raise the siege, Murray, whose movements had been marked by great indecision, hastily re-embarked his troops on 12 June, leaving his guns and stores behind him (see, Hist. Peninsular War, rev. edit. vol. v. bk. xxi. chap. i.; cf. , vi. 565-9). Instead of obeying his instructions to proceed to Valencia (ib. vi. 426-9), to support the Spaniards there in case of withdrawal from Tarragona, Murray landed a part of his troops at the Col de Balaguer, where Lord William Bent inck arrived and assumed command four days later. Wellington condemned Murray's disregard of his instructions and his ready sacrifice of his guns and stores, which Murray defended on principle as having been resorted to successfully by French strategists. 'I have a very high opinion of ... talents,' Wellington wrote in a passage which is anonymous in his published despatches, but evidently applies to Murray, 'but he always appeared to me to want what is better than abilities, viz. sound sense' (ib. vi. 665-7). Wellington recommended that Murray should be tried by court-martial, and as it would not be fair to take the officers from the Peninsular army, officers to form the court should be sent from England and Gibraltar to some Mediterranean port, where the witnesses could readily be assembled. After long delay Murray was arraigned at Winchester on 16 Jan. 1815, before a general court-martial, of which Sir Alured Clarke [q. v.] was president, and General George, afterwards first lord Harris [q. v.], Sir Samuel Auchmuty [q. v.], Sir George Beckwith [q. v.], Sir Edward Paget, and other distinguished officers were members. The three charges were very verbose; the first alleged unmilitary conduct, the second neglect of duty and disobedience of the Marquis of Wellington's written instructions, and the third, neglect of proper preparations and arrangements for re-embarking his troops, 'to the prejudice of the service and the detriment of the British military character.' After sitting for fifteen days the court acquitted Murray, except so much of the first part of the third charge as amounted to an error in judgment, for which they sentenced him to be admonished. The prince regent dispensed with the admonition, and Murray was afterwards made a G.C.H., and in 1818 was transferred from the colonelcy 3rd West India regiment to that of 56th foot. He became a full general in 1825. He had the decorations of the Red Eagle of Prussia, and St. Januarius of Naples.

He died at Frankfort-on-Maine 15 Oct. 1827. Murray married, 25 Aug. 1807, the Hon. Anne Elizabeth Cholmley Phipps, only daughter of Constantine John, lord Mulgrave. She died 10 April 1848; she had no issue.

Murray was a liberal patron of art, and collected some good pictures. His portrait appears in the first of a set of four pictures of patrons and lovers of art, painted by Pieter Christoph Wonder. The pictures were commissioned by Murray about 1826, and are now in the National Portrait Gallery (see Catalogue, 1881, p. 516).

 MURRAY, JOHN (1778–1843), publisher, born at 32 Fleet Street, London on 27 Nov. 1778, was son of John Mac Murray, a descendant of the Murrays of Athol. The father was born in Edinburgh in 1745, and, after serving as lieutenant of marines from 1762, retired on half-pay in 1768, and commenced business as a London bookseller and publisher, purchasing, in November 1768, the business of William Sandby, at the sign of the 'Ship,' 32 Fleet Street, and discontinuing the prefix 'Mac' before his surname. He advanced slowly, publishing many important works, and meeting with alternate gains and losses. He also wrote several pamphlets, and edited an annual register, successively entitled 'The London Mercury' and 'The English Review.' A half-length portrait is in the possession of John Murray, Esq. His first wife having died childless, he married again, and had three sons, the two elder of whom died in infancy. John, the third, was educated successively at private schools in Edinburgh, Margate, Gosport, and Kennington. While at Gosport, under Dr. Burney, he lost the sight of his right eye from an accident occasioned by the carelessness of a writing- 