John Murray was the elected Representative to the Great and General Court of the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of ...

from 1751 to 1774 for Rutland, Rutland's Northwest District and later for Hubbardston and

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

. He was principal in the transactional and legislative founding of

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, Oakham, Athol and Hubbardston. Often honored by the colonial government he was driven from his home in August of 1774 and forced to flee to Boston.

Biography

Murray immigrated to New England in August of 1718 as a boy with the McClanathan, Shaw and Savage families. These Scotch-Irish people numbering some 750 came on five ships from Northern Ireland, an arrangement that had been brokered by Cotton Mather with the colonial government, they originally settled

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but after their Presbyterian church had been razed most moved on to Rutland. Murray married Elizabeth McClanathan in 1742 in Bondsville and Lucrecia Chandler the daughter of John Chandler (sheriff) in 1761. Because he was the first named proprietor whose grant was from the King and because he was from Rutland Massachusetts, Murray is credited with naming Rutland, Vermont. After the War of Independence he finally settled in a house on Prince William Street in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K ...

he died on August 30, 1794, and is buried there.

Public service

Murray served in Rutland as a Selectman and then was elected to Town Clerk in 1742 and to Assessor in 1747. During the French and Indian War he served as a Lieutenant Colonel.

August 24, 1774

After the assault on the Timothy Paine House on Wednesday August 24, 1774 some of rebels marched to Rutland to force Murray to resign as Mandamus Councillor. They stoned his house breaking the windows and terrified Murray and his family. Murray fled to Boston where he was garrisoned until

Evacuation Day (Massachusetts) Evacuation Day is a holiday observed on March 17 in Suffolk County, Massachusetts (which includes the cities of Boston, Chelsea, and Revere, and the town of Winthrop) List of Massachusetts holidays and also by the public schools in Somervill ...

March 17, 1776.

References

External links

"Worcester Art Museum : Lucrecia Murray" {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, John American Loyalists from Massachusetts People from Rutland, Massachusetts 18th-century births 1794 deaths Year of birth unknown Massachusetts politicians Harvard University alumni