Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

James Patrick Murray (21 January 1782 – 5 December 1834) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who served briefly as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP), despite being under age.

Family and early life

Murray was born in Leghorn, the oldest son of General James Murray (1721–1794) of

Beauport Park Beauport Park is a house near Hastings, East Sussex, England. It is located at the western end of the ridge of hills sheltering Hastings from the north and east. Roman occupation In 1862, the Rector of Hollington Church found a huge slag hea ...

. His mother was Ann Witham, his father's second wife. His father was the fifth son of Alexander Murray, 4th Lord Elibank. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, and in 1803 he married Elizabeth Rushworth, daughter of Rev Edward Rushworth of Freshwater House. They had 6 sons and 6 daughters.

Career

Murray joined the

in 1797, rising to the rank of

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

before he retired in 1830. He served with his relative Sir James Pulteney in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland and the

Ferrol Expedition The Ferrol Expedition (or Battle of Brión) took place on 25 and 26 August 1800, and was an unsuccessful British attempt to capture Ferrol from Spain. Ferrol was a major Spanish naval base with a shipyard for shipbuilding and dry dock for re ...

. He lost the use of his right arm during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

, and retired to his home at Killenure near Athlone in Ireland. At the general election in July 1802, Murray was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

as a

(MP) for the

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorate ...

of Yarmouth on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

. At the time he was only 20 years old, even though the minimum age for MPs was 21 until

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. His election appears to have been only as a place-holder on behalf of Lord Holmes, the clergyman-peer who was patron of the borough. Murray resigned his seat in early 1803, by the procedural device of accepting appointment to the sinecure of Steward of the Manor of East Hendred.

References

1782 births 1834 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1802–1806 British Army generals British Army personnel of the Peninsular War People from Athlone {{British-Army-bio-stub