Ohio History Journal

COLONEL JOHN MURRAY.

 

 

DAVID E. PHILLIPS.

 

The readers of the Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

can hardly fail to be interested in any matter intimately asso-

ciated with the very beginnings of our "Great Commonwealth."

The famous old mansion in Rutland, Mass., now owned by

"The Rufus Putnam Memorial Association" and called "The

Cradle of Ohio" has become one of the "Shrines of American

Patriotism", and few have had so romantic an origin and his-

tory. It was built about the year 1760 and for many years

thereafter was in the possession of Colonel John Murray, a

violent Tory and a public official under George III.

The story of Colonel Murray's life presents a series of

picturesque episodes of absorbing interest.     His origin and

parentage have been shrouded in mystery very little save tra-

dition and "circumstantial evidence" having been offered con-

cerning his early history, however those best qualified to judge

feel very sure, and believe him to have been a scion of the

noble "House of Atholl" whose surname was Murray, and

whose family seat was at "Blair Castle" in the north of Scot-

land.¹ A tradition at this old homestead still survives, to the

 

1From a study of the records of this family, the presumption

becomes very strong that Colonel John Murray was a grandson of John

Murray the second Earl and first Marquis of Atholl, whose wife Jean,

was the youngest daughter of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy.

This John Murray, who died in 1640, had an eldest son John (1631-

1703) who was the heir to "Blair Atholl" estate, and was for many

years actively engaged in the wars of that period. That there were other

sons, and one of these no doubt was the father of John Murray the

emigrant. An evidence that he was of this family is found in the names

of his elder sons, Alexander, John and Robert, the two latter died in

early youth, and these names were given other sons born at a later

date, all these names were common in the Murray family for many

generations whose records we are considering.

(397)

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398      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   effect that many, many years ago a young member of the family disappeared, of whom no tidings ever returned, and it was be- lieved he had "run away to America." Corroborative evidence is found in the fact that his family plate bore the arms of the Duke of Atholl, and again it appears that his name is the first on the petition in 1762 to the "General Court" at Boston for the charter for the town of Atholl2 not far from Rutland in the

same county. Col. Murray being a member of the General Court from Rutland, having been its representative for some twenty   2(Atholl) Reference to a comprehensive "Gazettier" of the world, shows that the town of Atholl here mentioned is the only place in America so named (with the single exception of a small town in Northern New York). The only other locality so named is the district in the north of Scotland embracing about 450 square miles, elevated,

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Colonel John Murray.                  399

years. Upon the evidence of his tombstone inscription in the

"Rural Cemetery" at St. Johns, New Brunswick, "he was born

in Ireland, November 22d, 1720."

The exact time of his appearance in Rutland is not known,

but it was no doubt about 1740, for it was at that time he was

married to his first wife,³ who was of the same ship's company

upon his voyage hither. His natural ability and instinct for

leadership is indicated by the fact that within the next few years

he had filled nearly all the responsible offices in the gift of his

had acquired large landed estates, not only in Rutland but in

the towns of Oakham Barre and Atholl and was accounted

one of the wealthiest men in the county. He built fine homes

for himself and his children. The quaint old farmer historian

of the town thus describes him, "a large portly man, and when

dressed in his regimentals made a superb appearance," "he had

servants, black and white, and his high company from Worcester

and Boston; his entertainments and parade added greatly to the

popularity and to the splendor of the town". Upon the death

townsmen, and before he was thirty-five years old was selected

to represent them in the "General Court" at Boston. In the

meantime he had developed remarkable business abilities and

of the wife of his youth, (the mother of his children, she who

suffered the hardships of the voyage to these shores, and of the

pioneer life in the New England wilderness) in 1760, he married

Miss Lucretia Chandler of the intensely artistocratic family of

Judge John Chandler, (the third Judge of that name). At this

time he had his own as well as his wife's portrait painted by

the celebrated Copley, both of which are still extant, the latter

in Boston and the former in St. Johns, New Brunswick.

 

and very picturesque, Blair-Atholl, a fertile vale on the Garry and the

forest of Atholl containing some 100,000 acres are stocked with red deer

and game. It gives the title of Duke to the head of the Murray family

its chief proprietor, whose seat is at "Blair Castle" near Mts. Benygloe

and Gairn Gower.

3Reed's history of Rutland (1836) tells us that "John Murray

after his arrival in America did not forget the girl, Elizabeth Mc-

Clanathan with whome he made the voyage, but made her his wife,

and to them were born ten children." Her brother John McClanathan

was a captain under Colonel Murray in the "Old French War".

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400      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   By Gov. William Shirley he was commissioned a Colonel of a Worcester Co. regiment in the "old French war," but is be- lieved not to have been in active service, preferring to entrust that chiefly to his subordinate officers. By blood and association he was naturally affiliated with the aristocratic, or Tory party, and as the period of the "Revo- lution" approached, these sympathies became more and more apparent, most of his family (sons and sons-in-law) indulged similar sentiments, although one or two espoused the cause

of the colonies, and served in the patriot army.4  His youngest son Samuel, a physician's apprentice in Boston, is said to have acted as guide for the British troops through the marches of Cambridge on the night of April 18th, 1775. We know that he fell into the hands of the Provincials as a prisoner of war on the following eventful day, and shortly thereafter was ordered 4Alexander Murray son of Col. Murray served three years in the war of the Revolution, and received a bounty from the Gov't beside being granted one of his father's confiscated farms.

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Colonel John Murray.                401

 

sent to his father's farm in Rutland, with the positive injunction

not to pass its limits without permission. When the final rup-

ture came, the "Mandamus Councelors" and other officers of

the Crown were asked to resign. Many did so through fear of

losing their estates and the favor of their fellow citizens, while

many fled at once to England or the Provinces.⁵ Colonel Mur-

ray had been a special mark for the Provincial's disfavor, having

long enjoyed their confidence by serving them in almost every

capacity in their gift for thirty years. He was about to accept

a high office from the Crown, had sworn allegiance to the King

and to support the laws of the Realm, when on August 22d

some fifteen hundred men from Worcester and other towns re-

paired to the Murray home in Rutland prepared to enforce de-

mands. He had evidently taken the alarm, for although every

nook and cranny of the premises was searched, he could not

be found. Before they took their departure one indignant visitor

declared he would show Colonel Murray who had been there, and

thereupon thrust his bayonet through the canvas of the Colonel's

portrait which hung upon the wall. The wound shows to this

day, and can be seen in the reproduction of the portrait ac-

companying this article. Colonel Murray returned two or three

days later and removed his family and their more valuable

belongings to Boston, reaching that town in safety, and soon

afterwards removing permanently to St. Johns, New Bruns-

wick, where he again engaged in business, acquiring considerable

fortune before his death in 1794.

Colonel Murray left a numerous family from whom has de-

scended a notable posterity (through his daughters), bearing the

names of Botsford, Hazen, Bliss, Wilmot, Weldon and others,

 

Mr. Burton W. Potter in his valuable paper upon Col. Murray

says "that the Revolutionary war was in a sense a civil war, with

members of many families arrayed against each other. At the beginning

the whigs and tories were pretty evenly divided, but the tories were

soon overawed and silenced and while several thousands embarked for

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and colonized those provinces, they

comprised but a small minority of those who preferred silence and

aquiesence, to proscription and banishment."

Vol. XIX. -26

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402      Ohio. Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   who have been among the most distinguished men of New Brunswick, attaining high positions in professional and civil life. Hon. J. Douglas Hazen of St. Johns, a member of the executive council of the Province, is the present owner of the famous Copley portrait, and to him we are indebted for the fine large photograph from which our illustration has been made. During the later period of the war, and after the surrender of Burgoyne's army, a large detachment of which was sent to Rutland where extensive barracks had been erected for their

accommodation, as if by an irony of fate the timber used in the construction of these barracks was cut from Colonel Mur- ray's lands and his mansion house was used for the British of- ficers of higher rank. When the property of the Tories was seized by the new government, this house, destined to become more than a hundred years later, a "patriotic shrine" for future generations, was purchased at the government sale by Rufus Putnam and was occupied by him and his family until their de- parture for the "Ohio Country". Upon that memorable winter

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Colonel John Murray.               403   night (January 9th, 1786), within these sacred walls was born the "idea and plan" which shortly afterwards took definite form as "The Ohio Company". In April, 1888, Hon. George F. Hoar, United States Sen- ator from Massachusetts, delivered the principal address upon the occasion of the centennial celebration of the first landing of the company at Marietta, at that time he conceived the plan of preserving for future generations the "Old Putnam House" in Rutland! Senator Hoar lived to witness this plan fully realized, and many thousands of interested visitors annually come to do honor to the venerable structure now so lovingly preserved and cherished by the "Rufus Putnam Memorial Association".

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