Biography

Patrick Murray. (1703-1778) (aka. 5th Lord Elibank)

5th Lord Elibank. Son of Alexander Murray, 4th Lord Elibank and Elizabeth Stirling. Married (1735) to Maria Margaretha de Jonge (d. 1762), daughter of Cornelis de Jonge van Ellemeet and widow of Lieut-General William North (1678-1734), Lord North and Grey. A sometime member of the Cocoa Tree Club. Member of The Poker Club.

A brilliant man of great knowledge he wrote Essays on Paper Money, Banking, etc. (1755) Thoughts on Money, Circulation, and Paper Currency (1758), Inquiry into the Origin and Consequence of the Public Debts (1758/9), Queries Relating to the Proposed Plan for Altering Entails in Scotland (1765), Letter to Lord Hailes on his Remarks on the History of Scotland (1773) and Considerations on the Present State of the Peerage of Scotland (1774). Alexander Carlyle, in his autobiography, described Lord Elibank as one of the most learned and ingenious noblemen of his time, and as having a mind that embraced the greatest variety of topics and produced the most original remarks.

Patrick Murray died at Ballencrieff Castle in Haddingtonshire near Edinburgh.

Life with James Boswell:

Boswell was with him on 26/11-62 at Lord Eglinton's, describing him as a man of great genius, great knowledge, and much whim. Boswell had a conversation with Lord Elibank in the company of Lord Eglinton, James Macdonald and Thomas Sheridan, mentioned in LJ 291162.

Boswell and Johnson also visited the Lord during their 1773 tour of the Hebrides.

External links:

• Patrick Murray - at thePeearage.com
• Significant Scots: Patrick Murray - at Electric Scotland
• Murray family tree - from Stirnet
• Ballencrieff Castle
• Portrait of Lady Elibank - from NPG

Literature:

Few (virtually none) of Patrick Murrays writings seems to be available today. A search on Abebooks sometimes results in a work referred to as Free Disquisition Concerning the Law of Entails in Scotland (1765), authored by John Swinton = Lord Elibank. I am not sure if this is the work referred to above, but the subject area is most certainly the same. John Swinton was himself an advocate in Edinburgh at the time, so they may have co-written the piece. Or it may have been a commentary to Lord Elibanks queries.

Alexander Carlyles autobiography, The Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, which mentions Lord Elibank quite a few times and in general gives a great picture of persons and events of the time, is available, inexpensively, via Abebooks and directly from Questia, The Internet's Largest Library

This article was last updated at February 07 2008 13:06:11 CET

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