James Murray

James Murray, Earl of Dunbar (–1770) was a Scottish Tory politician who became a Jacobite agent and courtier. He served as the Jacobite Secretary of State in exile in Rome from 1727 to 1747. Earl life and family Murray was the second child of David Murray, 5th Viscount of Stormont and Marjory Scott. His brothers included David Murray, 6th Viscount of Stormont and the First Earl of Mansfield. Despite being Protestants, Murray's family were Jacobites and his father had been declared a rebel by the Privy Council of Scotland in 1689 after he failed to respond to a summons by the Committee of Estates and was later imprisoned on several occasions. Political career In 1710, Murray was admitted as an advocate at the Faculty of Advocates, but he apparently never practised. In the 1710 British general election, he was put forward as the candidate for Dumfriesshire by Lord Annandale as a Tory. He was defeated by another Tory, William Grierson, but Murray's popularity among Scottish Tories ensured he was confirmed as a Member of Parliament by petition on 22 February 1711. Once in parliament, Murray gave his support to the ministry of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. He associated himself with a group of MPs concerned with Scottish affairs and which aimed to promote episcopalianism in Scotland. He rapidly acquired a reputation in the Commons as being both ambitious and a holder of grudges. 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.