John Murray, 1st Earl of Annandale (died 1640) was a Scottish courtier and Member of Parliament.

Career

He was known as John Murray of Lochmaben or

Lincluden Lincluden Collegiate Church, known earlier as Lincluden Priory or Lincluden Abbey (the name by which it is still known locally), is a ruined religious house, situated in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire and to the north of the Royal Bu ...

, and John Murray of the Bedchamber. John Murray was the 6th surviving son of Sir Charles Murray (d. 1605) of Cockpool, Dumfries and Margaret Somerville, a daughter of Hugh Somerville, 5th Lord Somerville. He served as a page to Anne of Denmark before becoming a

Groom of the Bedchamber Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Household of the monarch in early modern England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In France, the Duchy of Burgundy, and in Eng ...

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

. He moved to London with James in 1603 when he became James I of England at the Union of the Crowns. Murray became a conduit for Scottish royal business at court. A number of letters and petitions addressed to him survive in the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

. Murray was rewarded with properties in England. On 22 May 1605 he was granted Plumpton Park in Hesket in the Forest of Inglewood, then regarded as part of Debatable Lands between Scotland and England. Thomas Musgrave of Bewcastle, the owner of Plumpton, resisted this grant. In October 1605 Murray was awarded a yearly pension of 200 marks, as a servant of the queen. In July 1609 the king gave him £100 to repair an old priory, Guildford Black Friary, near the royal park at Guildford. He was naturalised as a denizen of English in 1610. He became Keeper of the Privy Purse in 1611 in the place of

Robert Jousie Robert Jousie (or Joussie or Jowsie or Jossie; died 1626) was a Scottish merchant, financier, and courtier. Life Jousie was a cloth merchant based in Edinburgh with a house on the High Street or Royal Mile. He became an exclusive supplier of fab ...

, a textile merchant and partner of the goldsmith

Thomas Foulis Thomas Foulis (fl. 1580–1628) was a Scottish goldsmith, mine entrepreneur, and royal financier. Thomas Foulis was an Edinburgh goldsmith and financier, and was involved in the mint and coinage, gold and lead mining, and from May 1591 the receipt ...

. Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia wrote to him from Heidelberg in June 1613.

Abraham Harderet Abraham Harderet (fl. 1604-1625), goldsmith and jeweller to Elizabeth I of England and Anne of Denmark Career Abraham Harderet was the son of Martin Harderet and Rachel Fontaine or Le Maçon, daughter of Robert le Maçon, Sieur de la Fontaine, ...

brought the letter, which explained that she had been obliged to buy jewels from him to give as gifts at her wedding, many more than she could pay for, and he could show Murray the bills she had signed. She wanted to Murray to arrange it so the

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

would pay Harderet. She would not trouble Murray or the king again, except only for her servants, and she sent a list of her household. Abraham Harderet was Anne of Denmark's jeweller, and had travelled with Elizabeth to Germany. In 1621 he became Member of Parliament for

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, and bought

Tyninghame House Tyninghame House is a mansion in East Lothian, Scotland. It is located by the mouth of the River Tyne, east of Tyninghame, and west of Dunbar. There was a manor at Tyninghame in 1094, and it was later a property of the Lauder of The Bass fam ...

in East Lothian from the Lauder family for 200,000

merks The merk is a long-obsolete Scottish silver coin. Originally the same word as a money mark of silver, the merk was in circulation at the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century. It was originally valued at 13 shillings 4 pence (exactly ...

. In 1622 he was promoted to Gentleman of the Bedchamber. The Marquess of Hamilton praised him in a letter to the Marquess of Buckingham, writing that he "is a very safe man, and I must say a zealous servant of yours". King James made him Lord Lochmaben and Viscount Annand in the peerage of Scotland then Charles I made him Earl of Annandale, also in the peerage of Scotland. In September 1623, Prince Charles came to his at Guildford on his return from the

Spanish Match The Spanish match was a proposed marriage between Charles I of England, Prince Charles, the son of James I of England, King James I of Great Britain, and Infante, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain. Negotiations too ...

. Murray continued as Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I. He was also Constable and Keeper of Falkland Palace and the Lomond Hills. Andrew Murray of Balvaird advised him that the back galleries of the Palace were decayed in 1615. In 1639 Balvaird helped him repair the keeper's house at Falkland, called the Castlestead or Nether Palace of Falkland. Many letters to Murray from Scottish correspondents survive, mostly on political and church business. He delivered letters from Francis Bacon to the king. William Couper, Bishop of Galloway asked him to buy saddles for his wife and daughter, because they were much cheaper in London. The lawyer Thomas Hamilton advised him about the ownership of a hoard of gold coins found by a tenant on his lands near

. He married

Elizabeth Schaw Elizabeth Schaw (died 1640) was a Scottish courtier. Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir John Schaw of Broich and Arngomery, a niece of William Schaw, and a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Denmark. Another Elizabeth Schaw, a cousin, the wife of Henry L ...

, niece of William Schaw, and lady-in-waiting to Anne of Denmark, and had with her a son and a daughter. His son James (d. 1658), later Earl of Annandale and Viscount Stormont, was baptised in the Chapel Royal at

Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinbu ...

on 19 August 1617, William Couper preached and Anne Livingstone, Countess of Eglinton, presented the child.David Calderwood, ''History of the Kirk of Scotland'', vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 277
/ref> He died in 1640.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Annandale, John Murray, 1st Earl of 1640 deaths 17th-century Scottish people Earls in the Peerage of Scotland 01John Court of James VI and I Peers of Scotland created by James VI Clan Murray People from Dumfries People from Westminster People from Surrey English MPs 1621–1622 Members of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland 1630 Year of birth missing