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 Lochmaben ( Gaelic: ''Loch Mhabain'') is a small town and civil parish in Scotland, and site of a castle. It lies west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. By the 12th century the Bruce family had become the local landowners and, in the 14th ...

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 Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and En ...

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 En ...

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 h ...

. He moved to London with James in 1603 when he became James I of England at the

Union of the Crowns The Union of the Crowns ( gd, Aonadh nan Crùintean; sco, Union o the Crouns) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of the Kingdom of England as James I and the practical unification of some functions (such as overseas dipl ...

. 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 th ...

. 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 The Debatable Lands, also known as debatable ground, batable ground or threip lands,. lay between Scotland and England. It was formerly in question as to which it belonged when they were distinct kingdoms. The name either signifies litigious or ...

between Scotland and England. Thomas Musgrave of

Bewcastle Bewcastle is a large civil parish in the City of Carlisle district of Cumbria, England. It is in the historic county of Cumberland. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 411, reducing to 391 at the 2011 Census. The parish ...

, 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 The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King/Queen (or Financial Secretary to the King/Queen) is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The officeholder is assisted by t ...

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 Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 159613 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, she is called the Wi ...

wrote to him from

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

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 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

'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 Prince Charles, the son of King James I of Great Britain, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain. Negotiations took place over the period 1614 to 1623, and during th ...

. Murray continued as Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I. He was also Constable and Keeper of

Falkland Palace Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish Kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, providing an escape from political and religious turmoil. Today it is under the stewardship o ...

and the

Lomond Hills The Lomond Hills (meaning either beacon hills or bare hills), also known outside the locality as the Paps of Fife, are a range of hills in central Scotland. They lie in western central Fife and Perth and Kinross, Scotland. At West Lomond is the ...

. 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 Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

to the king. William Couper,

Bishop of Galloway The Bishop of Galloway, also called the Bishop of Whithorn, was the eccesiastical head of the Diocese of Galloway, said to have been founded by Saint Ninian in the mid-5th century. The subsequent Anglo-Saxon bishopric was founded in the late 7t ...

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

, 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 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

* se

{{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