Clan Murray

History

Clan Murray looks back to Freskin, a lord of the twelfth century who settled in Scotland in the reign of David I. He is generally thought to have been Flemish, though that is a likelihood rather than a documented fact. He held lands in Moray, and his descendants took the name de Moravia, 'of Moray'. In Scots that became Murray.

One line moved south. In 1242 the family of Walter of Moray acquired Bothwell in Clydesdale, and Walter or his son William 'the Rich' began Bothwell Castle. Its huge round tower is still one of the finest stone buildings of medieval Scotland. Andrew Moray raised the north against Edward I in 1297 and joined forces with William Wallace, but he did not long outlive their victory at Stirling Bridge. Bothwell later passed out of the family. In 1362 Joanna Moray, its heiress, married Archibald 'the Grim' of the Black Douglases.

The chiefship settled on the Murrays of Tullibardine in Perthshire, a property Sir William de Moravia is said to have acquired in 1282. In 1586, and again a few years later, a number of Murray lairds signed bonds of association recognising Sir John Murray of Tullibardine as their chief. He was made Earl of Tullibardine in 1606. The earldom of Atholl came to the Murrays in 1629. They were raised to Marquess of Atholl in 1676 and Duke of Atholl in 1703.

The Jacobite risings split the family. The 1st Duke backed the Hanoverian succession, but in 1715 his sons William, Marquess of Tullibardine, and Lord George Murray came out for the Jacobites. In 1745 Lord George, a younger son of the 1st Duke, served as lieutenant general of the Jacobite army. He was largely responsible for the victory at Prestonpans and directed the retreat from Derby. He argued against fighting on the ground at Culloden. After the defeat he escaped to the Continent and died at Medemblik in Holland in 1760. Tullibardine, who raised the prince's standard at Glenfinnan, died in the Tower of London in July 1746. Their brother James, the 2nd Duke, supported the government.

Blair Castle at Blair Atholl is the family's seat. Its earliest part, Comyn's Tower, is dated to 1269. The 2nd Duke turned it into a Georgian house in the 1740s, and the 7th Duke gave it its present baronial look in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1765 the Duke of Atholl sold the sovereignty of the Isle of Man to the British government for £70,000.

The castle is also home to the Atholl Highlanders. Raised in 1777 as the 77th Regiment of Foot, they were re-formed in 1839 as the duke's bodyguard. They escorted Queen Victoria in 1842 and mounted guard when she stayed at Blair in 1844. Revived in 1966, they are often described as the last private army left in Europe.