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Was born at Glasgow,
Scotland, on 24 August 1765. His father, Thomas Muir, was a well-to-do
business man, and Muir was educated at the grammar school at Glasgow and
the university. He became a leader of the students who warmly took up the
cause of one of the professors who had been in conflict with his
colleagues. It was alleged that Muir had written offensive squibs against
the professors concerned, and he was expelled from the university. Muir
then went to the university of Edinburgh and in 1787 was admitted a member
of the faculty of advocates. He was a good speaker and during the next
five years made progress in his profession. In 1792 with other well-known
residents of Glasgow he took part in a public meeting which formed an
association under the name of "Friends of the Constitution and of the
People", the object being to procure a reform of the house of commons.
Branches of the association were established and in connexion with these
Muir took a prominent part as a speaker. Pitt was then prime minister and
his ministry was strongly against the proposed reforms, feeling ran high,
and the objects of the association were much misrepresented. Muir visited
France and arrived in Paris the evening before the execution of Louis XVI.
He deplored this himself, but during the following six months appears to
have been in close touch with many of the leading revolutionaries. The
British government sought for evidence to bring a charge against Muir, and
at the beginning of 1793 he was indicted for sedition. War had been
declared with France and it was impossible at first for Muir to return and
meet the charge. He reached Scotland in July and was immediately arrested.
He was tried on 30 and 31 August, found guilty and sentenced to 14 years
transportation. Before he left England efforts on his behalf were made in
parliament, and Fox and Sheridan spoke for him without avail. Muir arrived
at Sydney with Palmer (q.v.), Margarot and Skirving, transported for the
same offence, on 25 October 1794. Lieut.-governor Grose was, however,
especially instructed that he was "not at liberty to compel their
services", the practical effect of this being that they were not to be
regarded as convicts but as men banished from their country. In February
1796 Muir escaped in an American ship named the Otter which called
at Sydney, his biographer, P. Mackenzie, states that the ship was
especially sent to Sydney by admirers of Muir in the United States of
America. Some four months later the ship was wrecked on the west coast of
North America. Muir and two sailors were the only survivors, but he became
separated from his companions and lived with an Indian tribe for three
weeks. He then made his way down the coast and at last reached the city of
Panama. From there he went to Vera Cruz and then to Havana. Thence he was
sent to Spain but near Cadiz his vessel was attacked and taken by an
English man-of-war, and Muir was severely wounded. He was sent ashore with
other wounded men and lay for two months in a hospital at Cadiz. He
received a communication while at Cadiz from the government of France,
offering him French citizenship and inviting him to spend the remainder of
his life in France. He arrived at Bordeaux in December 1797 and Paris on 4
February 1798. But he was in a very weak state of health, and though he
lingered for some time he died at Chantilly on 27 September 1798.
Muir was a man of noble
character and ideals, who had the misfortune to be tried before a hostile
jury and bench of judges at a time of popular excitement. Lord Cockburn
begins his account of his trial with the words: "This is one of the cases
the memory whereof never perisheth. History cannot let its injustice
alone" (An Examination of the Trials for Sedition). The only
mitigating circumstances were that Muir was able to engage a cabin on his
way to Australia, and that while there he was able to live quietly in
retirement and was not treated as a convict. He has been referred to as
the author of The Telegraph; a Consolatory Epistle from Thomas Muir,
Esq., of Botany Bay, to the Hon. Henry Erskine late Dean of the Faculty,
which has also been called the first publication of verse written in
Australia. It was neither written by Muir nor in Australia. Muir had left
Australia long before he could have heard of the matters referred to in
the pamphlet. In Australia Muir is possibly only known to students of
history, though it is sometimes stated that Hunter's Hill, a suburb of
Sydney, was named after a property he had of that name. His farm, however,
appears to have been near Milson's Point. There is a monument on Calton
Hill, Edinburgh, to the men generally known as "The Scottish Martyrs",
which was erected in 1844. Muir's name appears first on the list, and a
short quotation from one of his speeches is also engraved on the stone.
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