Alexander Murray: 1777-1837
Alexander was born on 22 April 1777. He was a cabinet maker by profession.
As a young man he spent seven and a half years (from 1794 when he was 17 years old to 1802 when he was 25) serving in the Loyal Inverness-shire Fencible Highlanders (also known as the Duke of York's own Royal Highlanders). This was a regiment raised in 1794 by Major John Baillie of Dunean for service anywhere in the British Isles. It was embodied in 1795 and disbanded in 1802 when Britain made peace with France at Amiens (though the Franco-British struggle was resumed a year later in 1803 with the Napoleonic wars.
Fencibles were hostilities-only full-time regulars who were limited to home service (ie de-fencible) unless all members voted to go overseas. The Inverness-shire Fencibles comprised 600 men, of whom 350 were Highlanders, and it served in Ireland, including during the Rebellion of 1798.
Unfortunately I don't have any information about Alexander's service and I don't know if he fought in Ireland, but the 1790s were the years of the French Revolution and they had important effects in Ireland where there was a strong appetite for parliamentary reform and in particular for Home Rule. Catholics and Protestants were divided and the Catholics looked to France for help. France tried - and failed - twice (in 1796 and 1797) to invade Ireland, but they succeeded in frightening the Pitt government into a policy of savage repression against Irish Catholics suspected of having helped the invaders. It was this cruelty that precipitated the 1798 rebellion. However, the rebels were badly organised and poorly armed, and with their plans well known to the authorities they were easily, though savagely, repressed.
On 17 August 1802 Alexander received his Certificate of Discharge from the Fencibles, signed at Stirling Castle. It reads as follows:
These are to certify that the Bearer hereof Alexander Murray has served in the aforesaid Regiment, for the Space of Seven Years and Six Months is for the Reason below mentioned discharged from the said Regiment, he having received his Pay, Arrears of Pay, Cloathing of all Sorts, and all other just Demands from the Time of his inlisting into the said Regiment to this Day of his Discharge, and....
....He is discharged by order of General Vyse.
And to prevent any ill Use that may be made of this Discharge by its falling into the Hands of any other Person whatsoever, here follows a Description of the abovesaid Alexander Murray - he is aged about Twenty Five Years, Six feet One Inches [sic] high, of a fair Complexion, blue Eyes Round Visage and Brown Hair, born in the Parish of Duffus in the County of Murray by Trade a Wright.
Given under my Hand and the Regimental Seal, at Stirling Castle this Seventeenth Day of August 1802.
[Signed by] John Gordon Cuming, Colonel"
Alexander also signed the following statement "I do acknowledge to have received my Pay, Arrears of Pay, Cloathing of all Sorts, and all other just Demands, from the Time of my inlisting into the within mentioned Regiment to this Day of my Discharge; and Fourteen Days pay to carry me Home."
In 1807, aged 30, Alexander Murray, Wright in Edinburgh, married Margaret Glass, who resided in Glasgow.
The Certificate of Proclamation of Banns is dated 2 November 1807, in Glasgow; and the Certificate of marriage is dated 3 November 1807 and signed by Ralph Wardlow, Minister. Margaret was the daughter of William Glass and his second wife, Elizabeth Patterson.
Alexander and Margaret had 7 children:
Abijah (born 14 August 1808 at 319 Cowgate, Edinburgh, christened on 24 August 1808);
Elizabeth (born 26 December 1810 at 319 Cowgate, Edinburgh, christened on 29 December 1810);
John (born 6 April 1813, christened on 18 May 1813);
Joanna (born 22 May 1815, christened at St Cuthberts, Edinburgh on 27 May 1815);
Bethiah (born 24 March 1817, registered at St Cuthberts for baptism on 14 June 1817);
Ebenezer (born 29 April 1819 at 319 Cowgate, Edinburgh);
and Bethiah (born 9 May 1822).
It is possible that Elizabeth, Joanna and the first Bethiah all died in infancy. The remaining four all definitely survived to adulthood and married:
Abijah was my great great great grandfather. He married his cousin, Elizabeth Murray (daughter of Alexander's brother, John) on 6 June 1841. They had 9 children.
John married Euphemia McConnall in Edinburgh on 21 June 1841 and they had 6 children.
Ebenezer married Ellen Patterson......more
Bethia married Robert Smiles and they had 8 children.
On 2 October 1837 Abijah Murray, Alexander's son, wrote from 28 Brunswick Street, Edinburgh, to his cousin, John Tosh, Warwick Street, Glasgow, announcing the death of his father, Alexander Murray. He died at 2.30am on 2 October 1837, aged 60. He is buried in Saint Cuthbert's Burying Ground, Edinburgh.