Introduction to the Murrays

According to William Murray (my great uncle) there is no information about George Murray or his antecedents, but William can remember his father Abijah telling him on more than one occasion that they were said to be "spurious" Murrays. Apparently the story was that they stemmed from the neighbourhood of Elgin and after the Jacobean rebellion of 1745 had found it expedient to change their name from Stuart to Murray.

My great great great great grandfather: George Murray

George married Jean Jack, who was born in 1746, the daughter of William Jack and Jean Sinclair who married in 1743. George and Jean Murray had six children: William, born in 1773; Elizabeth, born in 1775; Alexander, born in 1777; John, born in (1779?); Jean, born 1781; and George, born in 1782. Alexander was my great great great grandfather. Oddly, so was John, because Alexander's son Abijah (my great great grandfather) married his cousin Elizabeth (my great great grandmother) who was John's daughter. I have no information about William, Elizabeth, Jean or George.

My great great great grandfather: Alexander Murray 1777-1837

Alexander was born on 22 April 1777. He died at 2.30am on 2 October 1837 aged 60 and was buried in Saint Cuthbert's Burying Ground, Edinburgh. He was a cabinet-maker by profession. He married Margaret Glass on 3 November 1807 when he was 30 years old and she was 27. Margaret was the daughter of Robert Glass and his second wife, Elizabeth Patterson.

Alexander and Margaret had 7 children: Abijah (born 14 August 1808 at 319 Cowgate, Edinburgh); Elizabeth (born 26 December 1810 at 319 Cowgate, Edinburgh); John (born 6 April 1813); Joanna (born 22 May 1815); Bethiah (born 24 March 1817, registered at St Cuthberts for baptism on 14 June 1817); Ebenezer.....more (born 29 April 1819 at 319 Cowgate, Edinburgh); and Bethiah (born 9 May 1822). It is possible that Joanna and the first Bethiah all died in infancy. The remaining five all survived to adulthood and at least four of them married.

Alexander's eldest brother, John Murray, became a mason and lived in Glasgow. He was married in Sterling to Catharine Ferguson, of Gorbals, on 15 July 1814 by William Henry, Minister of the Gospel, Stirling. John and Catherine's daughter Elizabeth Murray married her cousin Abijah on 9 June 1841. By that time John was already dead.

My great great great grandmother: Margaret Murray (née Glass) 1780-1857

Margaret, daughter of Robert Glass and his second wife Elizabeth Patterson, was born at Kippen on 26 November 1780. She was nearly 3 years younger than her husband Alexander and outlived him by 20 years. She was described on her death certificate as the widow of a cabinet-maker, and the cause of her death was disease of the heart. She'd been ill for 5 days and died at 6.00pm on 30 March 1857 aged 77. Her younger son Ebenezer was present at and reported her death.

My great great grandfather: Abijah Murray (Senior) 1808-1885

Abijah was born on 14 August 1808 at No 319, Cowgate, Edinburgh and christened on 24 August 1808 at St Cuthberts, Midlothian, Scotland. He worked as a Sheriff Officer. He died on 27 September 1885 aged 77 years.

He married his cousin, Elizabeth Murray, on 9 June 1841 (in Edinburgh parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, by Alex Frazer, Minister at St Stephen's) when he was 32 years old.

Abijah and Elizabeth had 8 children: Catherine, born in 1842; Alexander, born in 1844; Joanna, born in 1846; John, born in 1848; William, born in 1850; Abijah junior, born in 1852; Maria, born in 1855; and Patterson, born in 1857.

My great great grandmother: Elizabeth Murray 1819-1863

Elizabeth was the daughter of John Murray who had married Catherine Ferguson in Sterling on 15 July 1814. John was the brother of Alexander Murray, making Elizabeth and Abijah first cousins.

The marriage certificate describes Elizabeth as "daughter of the late John Murray, Mason, Glasgow", and residing at 30 Royal Circus, St Stephen's Parish, Edinburgh.

Elizabeth was 11 years younger than her husband Abijah. She died on 22 July 1863 at 22 St James Square, Edinburgh, aged 44, 22 years before her husband.

My great grandfather: Abijah Murray (Junior) 1852-1912

Abijah Murray

Abijah Murray Junior was born on 22 May 1852 in Edinburgh. He died on 19 February 1912, aged 59. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and later at Edinburgh University, where he was a medallist in political economy. He intended to enter the Indian Civil Service but in 1873, being offered a junior clerkship in the office of the Board of Supervision, he sacrificed his ambitions to the work of home administration. He passed successively through the stages of third, second and first-class clerk and in 1897, when at the head of his class, he was appointed Chief Clerk. Twelve years later, in 1909, the Secretary of State for Scotland appointed him as Secretary to the Local Government Board for Scotland, Edinburgh.

He married Grace McDiarmid on 27 June 1889. The couple had three children: Margaret, William and Robert. In 1903 he was appointed by King Edward the Seventh as a Companion of the Imperial Service Order. It was no doubt a significant honour to achieve this award and it meant that Abijah could use the letters ISO after his name.

In his early life he was an enthusiastic volunteer, a member of the Queen's Edinburgh Rifles, and a well-known shot. He was joint editor, with James Patten MacDougall, of a revised edition of Skelton's "Handbook of Public Health". Sir John Skelton was Secrtary to the Scottish Board of Supervision (which became the Local Government Board for Scotland in 1894) from 1868 to 1892. Abijah was also editor of "Green's Councillor's Manual"; and he took an active part in the management of Augustine Congregational Church, of which he was a member.

My great grandmother: Grace Murray (née MacDiarmid) 1855-1941

Grace was born on 10 December 1855 at Claggan, Kenmore. She was the fifth child to be born to parents Robert and Margaret MacDiarmid. She died at Oakleigh, Comrie on 17 March 1941 aged 85.

More to come

My grandmother: Margaret Campbell Murray 1890- 1966

Margaret was born in Edinburgh on 14 August 1890, the eldest child and only daughter of Abijah Murray and his wife Grace McDiarmid. she was educated from the age of 11 to 18 at George Watson's Ladies' College, one of the Edinburgh Merchant Company schools. After leaving school she spent a year at Hildesheim, near Hannover in Germany, before starting training in 1909 at Edinburgh College of Art where she took a Diploma in Design. She qualified as a Teacher of Drawing in 1914 and was planning to apply for a post as teacher of Drawing, Painting and Craftwork at the Girls' Collegiate School, Pietermaritzburg. Unfortunately the outbreak of the First World War got in the way.

She undertook her war service during 1916 & 1917 nursing at the Craiglockhart Poorhouse, Slateford, Edinburgh. On 17 January 1917, aged 26, while still working as a hospital nurse at Craiglockhart Poorhouse Margaret married Hassal Hanmer at Augustine Chapel, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. Then, from April 1918 to June 1919, she worked as an examiner in postal censorship.

Margaret and Hassal had four children: Thomas Hassal born in 1921; Elizabeth Grace born in 1923; and twins George Murray and Katherine (Kay) Margaret born in 1927.

Margaret died on 18 July 1966 at her home, Oakleigh, in Comrie, aged 75 years.

More to come

My great uncles

William Murray 1892-1991. My Great Uncle Bill was born in Edinburgh on 5 April 1892 and died on 12 April 1991, exactly one week after his 99th birthday. It's probably not an exaggeration to say he was an extraordinary man. He certainly led an extraordinary life and came through some pretty risky situations without serious physical damage: Gallipoli during the First World War; Japan at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbour; the Middle East with the threat of Rommel at El Alamein... Of Pearl Harbour he remarked "I might easily have been feeding the fishes in the China seas"......more

Robert McDiarmid Murray 1894-1916. My Great Uncle Robert's life was short but he died a hero half way through the First World War. He was the youngest of the three Murray children, born on 11 January 1894. He was seriously wounded near Ypres and died from his injuries (gunshot wounds in the back, chest and thigh) in Boulogne, France, on 25 February 1916. He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for bravery......more

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