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The great family of Murray or Moray
(occasionally in old deeds Murref) is supposed to have descended from Freskine (or
Friskin), a Fleming, who settled in Scotland in the reign of David I (1122-1153), and
acquired from that monarch the lands of Strathbroch in Linlithgowshire, and of Duffis in
Moray.
Friskin's grandson, William de Moravia, married the daughter and heiress of David de
Olifard, and was the ancestor of the Morays of Bothwell and Abercairny, represented by the
latter till the death of the late Major William Moray Stirling in 1850, when the male line
became extinct, and the property passed to his sister, the late Mrs. Home Drummond of Blair
Drummond.
His descendant, the 7th in possession, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, succeeded to
the estates of his family in 1446. He was sheriff of Perthshire, and in 1458 one of the
lords named for the administration of justice, who were of the king's daily council. He
married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, great chamberlain of Scotland,
by whom he had numerous issue. According to tradition, they had seventeen sons, from whom
a great many families of the name of Murray are descended. In a curious document entitled
"The Declaration of George Halley, in Ochterarder, concerning the Laird of
Tullibardine's seventeen sons - 1710", it is stated that they "lived all to be
men, and that they waited all one day upon their father at Stirling, to attend the king,
with each of them one servant, and their father two. This happening shortly after an Act
was made by King James Fifth, discharging any person to travel with great numbers of
attendants besides their own family, and having challenged the laird of Tullibardine for
breaking the said Act, he answered he brought only his own sons, with their necessary
attendants; with which the king was so well pleased that he gave them small lands in
heritage".
The eldest of Tullibardine's seventeen sons, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, had, with
other issue, William, his successor, and Sir Andrew Murray, ancestor of the Viscounts
Stormont. His great-grandson, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, was a zealous
promoter
of the Reformation in Scotland. George Halley, in the curious document already quoted,
says that "Sir William Murray of Tullibardine having broke Argyll's face with the
hilt of his sword, in King James the Sixth's presence, was obliged to leave the kingdom.
Afterwards, the king's mails and slaughter cows were not paid, neither could any subject
to the realm be able to compel those who were bound to pay them; upon which the king cried
out - 'O, If I had Will Murray again, he would soon get my mails and slaughter cows'; to
which one standing by replied - 'That if his Majesty would not take Sir William Murray's
life, he might return shortly'. The king answered, 'He would be loath to take his life,
for he had not another subject like him!'. Upon which promise Sir William Murray returned
and got a commission for the king to go to the north, and lift up the mails and the cows,
which he speedily did, to the great satisfaction of the king, so that immediately after he
was made lord comptroller". This office be obtained in 1565.
His eldest son, Sir John Murray, the twelfth feudal baron of Tullibardine, was brought up
with King James, who in 1592 constituted him his master of the household. On 10th July
1606 he was created Earl of Tullibardine. His lordship married Catherine, fourth daughter
of David, second Lord Drummond, and died in 1609.
His eldest son, William, second Earl of Tullibardine, married Lady Borothea Stewart,
eldest daughter and heir of line of the fifth Earl of Athole of the Stewart family, who
died in 1595 without make issue. He eventually, in 1625, petitioned King Charles the First
for the earldom of Athole. The king received the petition graciously, and gave his royal
word that it should be done. The earl accordingly surrendered the title of Earl of
Tullibardine into the king's hands, 1st April 1626, to be conferred on his brother Sir
Patrick Murray as a separate dignity, but before the patents could be issued, his lordship
died the same year. His son John, however, obtained in February 1629 the title of Earl of
Athole, and thus became the first earl of the Murray branch, and the earldom of
Tullibardine was at the same time granted to Sir Patrick. This Earl of Athole was a
zealous royalist, and joined the association formed by the Earl of Montrose for the king
at Cumbernauld, in January 1641. He died in June 1642. His eldest son John, second Earl of
Athole of the Murray family, also faithfully adhered to Charles the First, and was
excepted by Cromwell out of his act of grace and indemnity, 12th April 1654, when he was
only about nineteen years of age. At the Restoration, he was sworn a privy
counciller,
obtained a charter of the hereditary office of sheriff of Fife, and in 1663 was appointed
justice-general of Scotland. In 1670 he was constituted captain of the king's guards, in
1672 keeper of the privy seal, and 14th January 1673, an extraordinary lord of session. In
1670 he succeeded to the earldom of Tullibardine on the death of James, fourth earl of the
new creation, and was created Marquis of Athole in 1676. He increased the power of his
family by his marriage with Lady Amelia Sophia of Derby, beheaded for his loyalty 15th
October 1651. Through her mother, Charlotte de la Tremouille, daughter of Claude de la
Tremouille, Duke of Thouars and Prince of Palmont, she was related in blood to the Emperor
of Germany, the kings of France and Spain, and most of the principal families of Europe;
and by her the family of Athole acquired the seignory of the Isle of Man, and also large
property in that island.
John, the second Marquis and first Duke of Athole, then designated Lord Murray, was one of
the commissioners for inquiring into the massacre of Glencoe in 1693. He was created a
peer in his father's lifetime, by the title of Earl of Tullibardine, Viscount of
Glenalmond, and Lord Murray, for life, by patent dated 27th July 1696, and in April 1703
he was appointed lord privy seal. On the 30th July of that year, immediately after his
father's death, he was created Duke of Athole by Queen Anne, and invested with the order
of the Thistle. His grace died 14th November 1724. He was twice married; first to
Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, by whom he had six sons and a daughter, and
secondly to Mary, daughter of William Lord Ross, by whom he had three sons and a daughter.
His eldest son John, Marquis of Tullibardine, was killed at the battle of Malplaquet in
1709. His second son William, who succeeded his brother, was the Marquis of Tullibardine
who acted the prominent part in both the Scottish rebellions of last century. In 1745 he
accompanied Prince Charles Edward to Scotland, and landed with him at Borodale 25th July.
He was styled Duke of Athole by the Jacobites. After the battle of Culloden he fled to the
westward, intending to embark for the Isle of Mull, but being unable, from the bad state
of his health, to bear the fatigue of travelling under concealment, he surrendered, on the
27th April 1746, to Mr Buchannan of Drummakill, a Stirlingshire gentleman. Being conveyed
to London he was committed to the Tower, where he died on the 9th July following.
James, the second Duke of Athole, was the third son of the first duke. He succeeded to the
dukedom on the death of his father in November 1724, in the lifetime of his elder brother
William, attainted by parliament. Being maternal great-grandson of James, seventh Earl of
Derby, upon the death of the tenth earl of that line he claimed and was allowed the
English barony of Strange, which had been conferred on Lord Derby by writ of summons in
1628. His grace was married, first to Jean, widow of James Lannoy of Hammersmith, and
sister of Sir John Frederick, Bart, by whom he had a son and two daughters; secondly to
Jane, daughter of John Drummond of Megginch, who had no issue. The latter was the heroine
of Dr Austen's song of 'For lack of gold she's left me, O!@. She was betrothed to that
gentleman, a physician in Edinburgh, when the Duke of Athole saw her, and falling in love
with her, made proposals of marriage, which were accepted; and, as Burns says, she jilted
the doctor. Having survived her first husband, she married a second time, Lord Adam
Gordon.
The son and the eldest daughter of the second Duke of Athole died young. Charlotte, his
youngest daughter, succeeded on his death, which took place in 1764, to the barony of
Strange and the sovereignty of the Isle of Man. She married her cousin, John Murray,
Esq.,
eldest son of Lord George Murray, fifth son of the first duke, and the celebrated
generalissimo of the forces of Prince Charles Edward in 1745. Though Lord George was
attained by parliament for his share in the rebellion, his son was allowed to succeed his
uncle and father-in-law as third duke, and in 1765 he and his duchess disposed of their
sovereignty of the Isle of Man to the British government for seventy thousand pounds,
reserving, however, their landed interest in the island, with the patronage of the
bishopric and other ecclesiastical benefices, on payment of the annual sum of one hundred
and one pounds fifteen shillings and eleven pence, and rendering two falcons to the kings
and queen of England upon the days of their coronation. His grace, who had seven sons and
four daughters, died 5th November 1774, and was succeeded by his eldest son John, fourth
duke, who in 1786 was created Earl Strange and Baron Murray of Stanley, in the peerage of
the United Kingdom. He died in 1830. The fourth duke was succeeded by his eldest son John,
who was for many years a recluse, and died single 14th September 1846. His next brother
James, a major-general in the army, was created a peer of the United Kingdom, as baron
Glenlyon of Glenlyon, in the county of Perth, 9th July 1821. He married in May 1810,
Emily, second daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, and by her he had two sons and two
daughters. He died in 1837. His eldest son, George Augustus Frederick John, Lord Glenlyon,
became on the death of his uncle in 1846, sixth Duke of Athole. He died in 1864, and was
succeeded by his only son, John James Hugh Henry, seventh Duke of Athole, who inherited
the barony of Percy and several co-heirships on the death of his great uncle Algeron,
fourth Duke of Northumberland in 1865. The family residence of the Duke of Athole is Blair
Castle, Perthshire.
The firs baronet of the Ochtertyre family was created William Moray of Ochtertyre, who was
created a baron of Nova Scotia, with, remainder to his heirs male, 7th June 1673. He was
descended from Patrick Moray, the first styled of Ochtertyre, who died in 1476, a son of
Sir David Murray of Tullibardine. The family continued to spell their name Moray till
1739, when the present orthography, Murray, was adopted by Sir William, third baronet.
Another Account of the Clan
BADGE: Bealaidh chatti (Ruscus
occiliatus) Butcher’s broom.
PIBROCH: Fàilte Dhuic
Athull.
 IT
is highly interesting, at a period when this country has been brought into
such close touch with the Belgian people, as indomitable as they are
industrious, to recall the fact that more than one of our most illustrious
Scottish families derive their descent from the notables of Flanders in
earlier times. Among the Flemings who have left a conspicuous mark in
Scottish history one of the most distinguished was a certain Freskin. Sir
Robert Douglas in his Scottish Peerage calls him "a gentleman
of Flemish origin" who came into Scotland during the reign of David
I., and obtained from that munificent sovereign the lands of Strathbrock
in Linlithgowshire. Soon after the settlement of this individual the
famous insurrection of the Moraymen broke out. This was in the year 1130,
and Freskin by his skill and bravery is said to have contributed vitally
to the reduction of the rebellion. In return, King David conferred upon
him a large and fertile district in the lowlands of Moray. Forthwith the
new owner built a strong castle at Duffus, where his descendants
flourished for many generations. William, a chief of the family, who was
Sheriff of Invernairn, and died about 1220, is believed to have been the
first to assume the surname "de Moravia" or Moray. From him
descended the Morays, Lords of Bothwell, the Morays of Abercairney, and
Sir William de Moravia, ancestor of the Dukes of Atholl of the present
day.
Of the younger branches the
Lords of Bothwell made a great name during the Wars of Succession and
Independence. The sixth chief, Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, was the first
to join the patriot Wallace when he raised his standard. When the other
barons deserted the national cause he alone remained steadfast. Along with
Wallace he acted as Governor of Scotland, and after the battle of Stirling
Bridge, where he was grievously wounded, he signed along with Wallace the
famous letter, still extant, to the free city of Lubeck, which declared
the ports of Scotland open to foreign commerce. His son, another Sir
Andrew, was not less distinguished for his support to the cause of King
Robert the Bruce. He married Christian, a sister of that King, and after
the overthrow of the Regent Earl of Mar at Duplin, was appointed Regent by
the Scottish Parliament. He was a prisoner in England at the time of the
battle of Halidon Hill, but obtained his freedom in time to march to the
relief of his wife, who was bravely defending Kildrummy Castle, one of the
four strongholds which alone in Scotland held out for David Bruce against
Edward Baliol and Edward III. Curiously enough the besieger on that
occasion was David Hastings, Earl of Atholl, a title which, in later days,
was to become a distinction of the Morays. In the upshot Hastings was
overthrown and slain at the battle of Kilblene on St. Andrew’s Day,
1335. It was in the same campaign that Sir Andrew Moray, besieging
Lochindorb, was almost surprised by the English, and reassured his men,
first by insisting upon completion of the service of Mass which he was
hearing, and then by delaying to mend a strap of his armour which had been
broken, then led his force out of danger in good time through the wild
passes of the Findhorn. On the death of Thomas Moray, of Bothwell, the
estates of this branch passed to his daughter Joanna and her husband,
Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway and third Earl of Douglas, the
natural son of the Good Sir James of Douglas.
The Morays of Abercairney
still own their ancestral estate in Strathearn. It was saved for them on
one occasion by the stratagem of a retainer. Moray of Abercairney was
preparing to join the rebellion of Prince Charles Edward, when, as he was
drawing on his boots, his butler dashed a kettleful of boiling water about
his legs, with the exclamation, "Let them fecht wha will, bide ye at
hame and be laird of Abercairney."
The main line of the
Morays, however, was represented by Sir John de Moravia, Sheriff of Perth
in the time of William the Lion, 1165-1214. The son of this individual is
named in a charter of 1284, " Dominus Malcomus de Moravia, Miles,
Vicecomes de Perth." The successor of the latter, Sir William de
Moravia, married Ada, daughter of Malise, Earl or Seneschal of Strathearn,
and got with her the lands of Tullibardine in that district, from which
his descendants took their title. In the same way another daughter of the
Seneschal of Strathearn married the chief of the Grahams, bringing him the
estate of Kincardine, adjoining that of Tullibardine in Strathearn and
becoming the mother of the great Scottish hero, Sir John the Graham, the
friend of Sir William Wallace, and ancestor of the great house of
Montrose.
The son of Sir William de
Moravia and Ada of Strathearn was Andrew Murray of Tullibardine. It was he
who in 1332 helped Edward Baliol to win the battle of Duplin by fixing a
stake to mark the ford in the Earn, through which Baliol’s army passed
to surprise and route the Scottish host under the Regent Mar. For this,
when he was made prisoner two months later, Murray was put to death. He
left a son, however, and his descendant Sir John, the twelfth Murray of
Tullibardine, was Master of the Household and a member of the Privy
Council of James VI. In 1604 he was made Lord Murray of Tullibardine, and
two years later Earl of Tullibardine. His son, William, the second Earl,
had the good fortune, along with his cousin David, Viscount Stormont, when
a very young man, to help in the rescue of James VI. at Perth, when the
Earl of Gowrie is said to have attempted his life. For this he was made
hereditary Sheriff of Perthshire. He married the Lady Dorothea Stewart,
eldest daughter of John, fifth Earl of Atholl. By this marriage the
Murrays became inheritors of a title which had an interesting story. On
the overthrow of the Black Douglas in the middle of the fifteenth century,
James II. had married Margaret, the Fair Maid of Galloway, heiress of that
great house, to his own half-brother, John Stewart, son of the Black
Knight of Lorne and Queen Joan, widow of James I. This pair the King made
Lord and Lady Balvenie, and afterwards Earl and Countess of Atholl, and
their direct descendant was the fifth Earl of Atholl, whose eldest
daughter carried the title and estates to the house of Tullibardine.
Earl William arranged that
the earldoms of Atholl and Tullibardine should go respectively to his son
and his brother Patrick, but on the death of Earl Patrick’s son the
earldom of Tullibardine came back to the main line.
The second Murray Earl of
Atholl, to whom the Tullibardine title thus returned, was a strong
supporter of the cause of Charles I. during the civil wars. The Marquess
of Montrose was received by him at Blair Castle in 1644; and he raised no
fewer than eighteen hundred men to fight for the King. It was this
addition to his forces which enabled Montrose to win his early victory at
Tibbermuir. Atholl’s son also, in 1653, brought no fewer than two
thousand men to the royal standard when it was raised by the Earl of
Glencairn. These were the Atholl men who swooped down upon the Argyll
country and struck an effective blow against the influence of the
Covenanting Marquess of Argyll, then at the head of the Scottish
Government. By way of return one of Cromwell’s officers, Colonel Daniel,
penetrated the Atholl fastnesses, took Blair Castle by storm, and blew it
up. it was for these services and sufferings that in 1676, after the
Restoration, the Earl was made a Knight of the Thistle and raised to the
dignity of Marquess of Atholl. Sixteen years later, however, the
Revolution took place, and then, possibly owing to his wife’s
relationship with the House of Nassau, Atholl took the side of William of
Orange. An officer belonging to the Jacobite army of Viscount Dundee
seized Blair Castle, and refused to deliver it to the owner’s son, and
it was to attempt the reduction of the stronghold that General MacKay set
out on his march with the Government forces through the Grampian passes.
Dundee, who had come to the help of the garrison, was ready for him, and
as the Government troops emerged from the narrow gorge at Killiecrankie he
swooped down upon them, cut them to pieces, and himself fell in the moment
of victory.
The first Marquess of
Atholl married Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, only daughter of James, seventh
Earl of Derby, by his wife, Charlotte de la Tremouille. This lady was the
famous Countess of Derby who defended Latham House against the army of the
Parliament in 1644, and for her energetic protection of the Isle of Man in
1651 figures in Sir Walter Scott’s Peveril of the Peak. Her
mother was a daughter of the Prince of Orange, and she could trace descent
from the Greek emperors of Constantinople in the eleventh century. It was
in commemoration of the marriage of the Marquess of Atholl with the
daughter of the House of Derby that the name of Stanley was given to the
well-known village between Perth and Dunkeld.
While the eldest son of
this marriage succeeded to the Atholl titles, the second son, Charles, was
created Earl of Dunmore, and became ancestor of the distinguished family
bearing that title. The fourth son, William, having married Margaret,
daughter of the first Lord Nairne, became the second lord of that name. He
was out in "the ‘15," and his son, the Honourable John Nairne,
was out in "the ‘45 "; but the title was restored in 1824 to
the latter’s grandson, whose wife was the famous singer of the lost
Jacobite cause, Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne.
The second Marquess was
created Duke of Atholl in 1703. Partly no doubt because of his mother’s
descent from the House of Nassau, he supported the cause of William of
Orange; but he was a strong opponent of the union between Scotland and
England, and the Jacobite influence was strong in his family, so his sons
played striking parts in the story of the Jacobite rebellions of their
time. His second son, William, who, on the death of an elder brother,
became Marquess of Tullibardine, was one of the first to join the Earl of
Mar in 1715. For this he was attainted, but escaped abroad. He returned to
Scotland with the Spanish forces, took part in the battle of Glenshiel in
1719, and again escaped. Twenty-six years later he came again to Scotland
with Prince Charles Edward. After Culloden he made his way to the shores
of Loch Lomond, where, being taken prisoner by Buchanan, Laird of Drumakil,
he hurled a curse upon the latter’s house which, according to local
tradition, took effect for three generations. Eventually he was carried to
London, where he died in the Tower in 1746. Charles, the Duke’s fourth
son, commanded a Jacobite regiment in 1715, was captured at Preston, and
sentenced to be shot, but was afterwards reprieved. Most distinguished of
all was Lord George Murray, the Duke’s fifth son. Wounded at the battle
of Glenshiel in 1719, he escaped abroad and served in the Sardinian army,
but obtained a pardon and returned home. He joined Prince Charles in 1745,
and, as Lieutenant-General of the Jacobite army, was the real commander at
the battles of Preston, Falkirk, and Culloden. Notwithstanding various
accusations which have been made against him, he was without doubt the
ablest leader on the Prince’s side, and, had his suggestions been
followed, a different turn might have been given to the later history of
the House of Stewart. As it was, his eldest son succeeded as third Duke of
Atholl.
Meanwhile James, third son
of the first Duke, had succeeded to the titles, and on the death of the
tenth Earl of Derby without issue had inherited the Stanley barony of
Strange as well as the Kingship of the Isle of Man, which had been granted
to Sir John de Stanley by King Henry IV. in 1406. The lordship of the Isle
of Man had formerly been an appanage of the Scottish crown, but was seized
during the Wars of Succession by Edward I. of England. There was an
element of justice, therefore, in its return to the possession of a great
Scottish house. The existence of an independent kingship within the
British Isles, however, became an anomaly, and in 1765 it was purchased
from John, third Duke of Atholl, by the British Government for £70,000.
Further payments were subsequently made for the family’s landed and
other interests in the island, and the entire sum ultimately amounted to
nearly half a million sterling, which may be regarded as the redemption
money for the seizure made by Edward I. as Hammer of the Scots.
It was in the time of this
second Duke that the larch was introduced to Scotland and to the ducal
estates from the Tyrol in 1738. Five larch plants were brought to Dunkeld,
and a few others to Blair Atholl and Monzie. The species had not
previously been looked upon as a suitable forest tree for Scotland, as it
was thought to be far too tender for the climate. Of the five trees
planted at Dunkeld, two are still to be seen near the eastern end of the
cathedral. In 1839 two of the others were felled. One, containing 168
cubic feet of wood, was sold where it lay to Leith shipbuilders for £25
45.; the other, containing 147 cubic feet, was sent to Woolwich, and used
as beams in the repair of the store-ship Serapis. These marked the
beginning of great tree-planting operations in the Atholl district, and
before 1821 some nine thousand acres had been placed under wood,
converting a barren district into valuable forest land, and rendering much
of the previously waste country between the plantations available for
natural pasture.
The son of the second Duke
of Atholl died before his father, and John Murray, who succeeded as third
Duke, was the eldest son of Lord George Murray, Lieutenant-General of the
Jacobite forces in " the ‘45." He married the only surviving
daughter of the second Duke, and with her inherited the barony of Strange
and the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, which latter he disposed of as
already mentioned. It was his eldest son, the fourth Duke, who was the
famous improver of the Atholl estates, and to him is attributed the saying
"aye be putting in a tree, it will be growing while ye’re
sleeping." It was he who finally disposed of the family property and
privileges in the Isle of Man to the Crown for the sum of £409,000. And
he also began the building of the new palace at Dunkeld, which was
designed to be one of the most magnificent residences in Scotland, but was
never completed. The park about it he converted into one of the finest
landscape gardens, planning it to include a famous home farm, American
gardens, and carriage drives thirty miles in extent. It was he who
received the poet Robert Burns at Blair Castle, and of whose hospitality
and pleasant family circle the poet has left so charming a picture. His
second son was created Lord Glenlyon in 1821. The second Lord Glenlyon
succeeded as sixth Duke. His mother was the second daughter of the second
Duke of Northumberland, and his only son was the late holder of the
dukedom, who succeeded in 1864.
Needless to say, the House
of Atholl and the great family of Moray or Murray have always played a
striking and strenuous part in the history of the country. Their feuds
with their neighbours have not been so numerous as those of many other
clans, but one at least was long continued and included one of the most
tragic episodes in clan warfare. It was the feud between the Murrays of
Auchtertyre and the Drummonds in Strathearn. A mutual jealousy existed for
centuries between the two families, and it came to a head in 1490, when
Murray of Auchtertyre was induced to poind certain cattle belonging to the
Drummonds, for payment of a debt demanded by the Abbot of Inchaffray. In
revenge, William, Master of Drummond, son of the first Lord Drummond, led
an attack against the Murrays. In the battle at Knockmary near Crieff the
Murrays were at first successful, but the Drummonds, being reinforced,
finally drove them off the field. The fugitives took refuge in the little
kirk of Monzievaird, on the spot where the Mausoleum now stands in the
park of Auchtertyre, and for a time the pursuers could not find them. But
a too zealous Murray clansman, seeing his chance, shot an arrow from the
kirk and killed a Drummond; whereupon the Drummonds heaped combustibles
round the little fane, and burned it with all it contained to ashes. Eight
score Murrays were included in the holocaust, only one of those within the
kirk escaping by the compassion of a Drummond clansman outside, who was
his relation, and who, for his kindness, had to flee from the wrath of his
own clansmen to Ireland for a time.
Blair Atholl itself, we
have seen, had also its own tale of storm and battle. The oldest part of
Blair Castle is known as Comyn’s Tower, having been built, it is said,
by John Comyn de Strathbogie, who enjoyed the Atholl title in right of his
wife. From its builder’s time downwards the stronghold stood many a
siege. Its last experience of this kind was in March, 1746, when Sir
Andrew Agnew defended it against the Jacobites, then on their way north to
their last struggle at Culloden. Some curious details of the siege on this
occasion are given in the Scots Magazine for 1808. Many a famous
visitor has been entertained within these walls, as well as at Dunkeld
lower in the pass, where the Dukes of Atholl also have a seat. Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert visited Dunkeld House in 1842, and in 1844 the
Royal Family spent some weeks at Blair Castle. On these occasions the
illustrious visitors were received at the boundary of the property by a
guard of Atholl Highlanders several hundreds in number, and to the present
hour this body remains in existence. It has been called the only private
army in the British Isles, and when it turns out on great occasions under
the command of the Duke of Atholl it forms indeed a notable sight to see.
The late seventh Duke was
Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Perth from 1878. As a young man he was a
captain in the Scots Fusilier Guards, and was afterwards Colonel of the
3rd Battalion of the Black Watch. During the South African War he raised
1,200 men for the Scottish Horse, and sent them out to the command of his
son, the Marquess of Tullibardine. From material in the family charter
room he compiled for private circulation five volumes of Chronicles
of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families.
The present Duke is one of
the most active men of affairs in the country. While still Marquess of
Tullibardine, he won distinction in many fields. Holding a commission in
the Royal Horse Guards, he served with the Egyptian Cavalry as Staff
Officer to Colonel Broadwood during the Nile expedition of 1898, and took
part in the battles of the Atbara and Khartoum, when he was mentioned
twice in despatches, and received the D.S.O. He also served in the South
African War, first with the Royal Dragoons and afterwards as
Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 1st and 2nd Scottish Horse, which
regiment he had himself raised. For his share in this campaign he was
mentioned three times in despatches, received the Queen’s and the King’s
medal, and was made M.V.O. For service in the great war of 1914 he raised
two additional regiments of Scottish Horse for the formation of a Highland
Mounted Brigade, and is Commandant of the Scottish Horse and a
Brigadier-General. He also had a distinguished career as Member of
Parliament for Perthshire, and there is no more popular peer north of the
Border. Since the war he has raised £140,000 for a Scottish National War
Memorial; he has acted as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly,
and has held the post of Lord Chamberlain in the Royal Household.
Septs of Clan Murray:
MacMurray, Moray, Rattray, Small, Spalding. |
