Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 | Page 3

a Duke, and was made
Privy Seal: but the politics of the Court party changed; the Duke of
Atholl was dismissed from the Ministry, and he became henceforth a
warm opponent of all the Government measures. He spoke with
boldness, yet discretion, against the Union; and protested against a

measure which, as he conceived, gave up all the dignity and antiquity
of the kingdom.
During his proud career, a marriage with Katherine, the daughter of
William Duke of Hamilton, a lady of great prudence, and of eminent
piety and virtue, added to the high consideration of the Duke of Atholl.
Of this nobleman, certain historians have left the highest character. "He
was," says Nisbet, "of great parts, but far greater virtues; of a lively
apprehension, a clear and ready judgment, a copious eloquence, and of
a very considerable degree of good understanding."[4] It is difficult to
reconcile this description with the intrigues and bitterness which
characterise the Duke of Atholl, in Lovat's narrative of their rivalry; nor
would it be easy to reconcile the public report of many men with the
details of their private failings. That, however, which has impugned the
consistency and sincerity of the Duke of Atholl far more than the
representations of Lovat, is the belief that, whilst his feelings were
engaged in one cause, his professions were loud in upholding the other;
that he was double and self-interested; and that he saved his vast estates
from forfeiture by an act of policy which might, in some bearings, be
regarded as duplicity, in proof of which it is asserted, that, whilst he
pretended to condemn the conduct of his eldest son in joining the
Rebellion of 1715, he was the chief instigator of that step.[5] Such was
the father to whom Lord George Murray owed his birth.
During the unbroken prosperity of his House, the future General of the
Jacobite army was born. He was the fifth son of eight children, borne
by the first Duchess of Atholl, and was born in the year 1705. Of these,
John the eldest, and presumptive heir to the dukedom, had been killed
at the battle of Mons, or Malplaquet, in 1709. He was a youth of great
promise, and his death was a source of deep lamentation to his father; a
sorrow which subsequent events did not, perhaps, tend to alleviate.
William, Marquis of Tullibardine, was therefore regarded as the next
heir to all the vast possessions and ancestral dignities of his House. His
faithful adherence to the Chevalier St. George, and the part which he
adopted in the Rebellion of 1715, produced a revolution in the affairs
of his family, which, one may suppose, could not be effected without
some delicacy, and considerable distress.

In 1716 the Marquis of Tullibardine was attainted by an act passed in
the first year of George the First; and by a bill, which was passed in the
House of Commons relating to the forfeited estates, all these estates
were vested in his Majesty from and after the twenty-fourth of January
1715.[6] Upon this bill being passed, the Duke of Atholl, who had been
residing for many years with the splendour and state of a prince at his
Castle at Blair Atholl, journeyed to London, and, being graciously
received by George the First, he laid his case before that monarch,
representing the unhappy circumstances of his son, and pointing out
what effect and influence this might have, in the event of his own death,
on the succession of his family, if his estate and honour were not vested
in law upon his second son, Lord James Murray, who had performed
very signal service to his Majesty in the late rebellion. This petition
was received, and a bill was brought into parliament for vesting the
honours of John Duke of Atholl in James Murray, Esq., commonly
called Lord James Murray; and, as a reward of his steady loyalty, a law
was passed, enacting that the act of attainder against William Marquis
of Tullibardine should not be construed to extend to Lord James
Murray or his issue. In consequence of this bill, on the death of the
Duke of Atholl, in 1724, Lord James Murray succeeded to all those
honours and estates, which had thus been preserved through the
prudence of his father, and the clemency or policy of the King.
In this divided House was Lord George Murray reared. It soon
appeared that he possessed the decision and lofty courage of his
ancestry; and that his early predilections, in which probably his father
secretly coincided, were all in favour of the Stuarts, and that no
considerations of self-interest could draw him from that adherence.
The events of 1715 occurring when Lord George Murray was only ten
years of age, his first active exertions in the cause