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 562 DYSART DYSART EARLDOM [S.] i. William Murray, only s. and h. of the Rev. "William M., Minister of Dysart, co. Fife, and nephew I. 1643. of Thomas Murray, Provost of Eton (1622-23), Tutor and Secretary to Charles, Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I, became, in 1626, Gent, of the Bedchamber.^) M.P. for Fowey 1626, and for East Looe 1628-29; he was in great favour with that King, receiving from him, in 1637, the lease (extended in 1672 to the fee) of the manors of Ham and Petersham, Surrey. He was cr., by pat. dat. at Oxford, 3 Aug. 1643, EARL OF DYSART, co. Fife, and LORD HUNTING- TOWER, CO. Perth [S.J-C") He was sent over with instructions to the Scottish Commissioners at Breda in 1650 to treat with Charles II for his return to Scotland. He »?., before June 1636, Catherine, da. of Col. Norman Bruce (s. of Sir Robert Bruce of Clackmannan). She was living 22 May 1651.0 He was living 11 Sep. 1653, ('^) and d. 5.p.m.(f) (*) He was generally considered the Prince's "Whipping-boy," receiving vicariously the floggings due to his Royal Highness. (*") "Burnet says that his warrant for this purpose was signed at Newcastle while the King was in the hands of the Scots, though he prevailed on him to antedate it, as if it had been signed at Oxford, in order to get the precedency of some whom he hated. The same author adds that he did not pass this warrant under the Great Seal until after the King's death, when in reality it was no longer in force, and, ac- cordingly, though he was commonly called Earl of Dysart as long as he lived, I do not find that he ever took the title upon himself or that it was recognised by authority on any occasion whatsoever; in the court rolls at least of this [Ham] and of his manor of Petersham he is certainly never spoken of but by the name of William Murray^ Esq." (Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. i, p. 364). In The Diary of Mr. John Lamont of Newton, 1649-1671, printed at Edinburgh in 1830, p. 30, is this entry: "1651. This yeare ther were sundry of the Gentrie nobilitate, as the Laird of Kleish made Lord Colvin; Will. Murray, of the Bedchamber, Lord of Dysert; the Laird of Free- land Lord Ruthven, with several others." This entry is placed among those of June 1651, when Charles II was certainly in Scotland. It would seem that this patent was the completion of the warrant of his father, of 1643, ^^^ possibly was the creation of a Barony (not Earldom) of Dysart. J. Maitland Thomson writes: "It is plain that he was still styled Will. Murray in 1650, but the King calls him Earl in 1653. The inference is that either his Patent had passed the Seals in 165 1 by authority of the Parliament, or that he had a fresh patent from Charles II. It is quite conceivable that Parliament may have authorised the seals of the older patent — after Flodden it is recorded that sundry charters of James IV passed the Great Seal by order of the Lords of Council." G.E.C. and V.G. i^) On 22 May 1651, this lady (under the name of Katherine, not Elizabeth as in Douglas) surrendered the capital messuage of Ham to her da., Elizabeth Tollemache. See Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. i, p. 365, note "z." (^) See letter of that date from Sir E. Nicholas to Sir E. Hyde {Nicholas Papers). He did not die early in 1 65 1 as stated in Diet. Nat. Biog. V.G. (') Bishop Burnet speaks but ill of him, stating that " it was generally believed that he betrayed the most important of the King's secrets to his enemies." He seems