James Murray

James Murray ( – 1770), titular Earl of Dunbar from 1721, was a Scottish Tory politician who became a leading Jacobite agent and courtier. After representing two Scottish constituencies in the House of Commons between 1711 and 1715, he moved to France and became Viscount Bolingbroke's private secretary in the exiled court of James Francis Edward Stuart. He later served as the Jacobite secretary of state in exile in Rome from 1728 to 1747, and as governor and tutor to Charles Edward Stuart.

Early life and family Murray was the second child of David Murray, 5th Viscount of Stormont and Marjory Scott. In 1712 he was a leading advocate for the Toleration Act which granted the right to worship for Scottish Episcopalians who prayed for the monarch and used the English Book of Common Prayer. In 1713, he was briefly affiliated with a parliamentary motion to dissolve the union of England and Scotland, but swiftly reverted to supporting the government after the proposal was defeated in the House of Lords. On 9 May 1719 he received Princess Clementina in Rome in the absence of the Old Pretender, and on the following day he was James Stuart's representative when the couple married by proxy. During the imprisonment of his enemy, the Earl of Mar in Geneva from May 1719 to June 1720, he served as Secretary of State to the Old Pretender. Murray soon assumed considerable power as the Old Pretender's favourite, but gained enemies in the Jacobite court and was sent away from Rome on 6 February 1721 having been created Earl of Dunbar, Viscount of Drumcairn and Lord Hadykes in the Jacobite peerage on 2 February. He spent the following four years living in France. At the same time Murray's brother-in-law, John Hay of Cromlix, was made secretary of state, and his wife Marjorie (Murray's sister) was made Prince Charles' governess (though the Hays resigned their posts later in 1727). Murray was made a Knight of the Order of Thistle at some point in 1726. From 1727/8, Murray served as the Old Pretender's principal Secretary of State, but without ever being formally invested with the office. In 1751 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church and took holy orders. Dying unmarried in August 1770, he left the bulk of his property to Henry Benedict Stuart, and requested that 10,000 masses be said for the happy repose of his own soul. His Jacobite title was inherited by special remainder by his nephew, David Murray, 7th Viscount of Stormont, later Earl of Mansfield. His portrait, by Francesco Trevisani, is in the private collection at Scone Palace.