Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murray, James (1690-1764)
MURRAY, JAMES, second Duke of Atholl (1690?–1764), lord privy seal, was third son of John, second marquis and first duke of Atholl [q. v.], by Lady Catherine Hamilton. In 1712 he was made captain of the grenadier company of the 1st footguards. On the attainder in 1715 of his elder brother, William, marquis of Tullibardine [q. v.], for taking part in the rebellion, an act was passed by parliament vesting the family honours and estates in him as the next heir. After the conclusion of the rebellion he appears to have gone to Edinburgh to represent in as favourable a light as possible to the government the services of his father, in order to procure for him a sum of money in name of compensation (various letters to him by his father in Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. viii. pp. 70-1). At the election of 1715 he was chosen M.P. for Perth, and he was rechosen in 1722. He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father in 1724; and in 1733 an act of parliament was passed to explain and extend the act of 1715, by providing that the attainder of William, marquis of Tullibardine, should not extend to prevent any descent of honour and estate to James, duke of Atholl, and his issue, or to any of the issue or heirs male of John, late duke of Atholl, other than the said William Murray and his issue. In June of the same year he was made lord privy seal in room of Lord Islay, and on 21 Sept. he was chosen a representative peer. He was rechosen in 1734, and the same year was invested with the order of the Thistle. As maternal grandson of James Stanley, seventh earl of Derby [q. v.], Atholl on the death of James, tenth earl of Derby, in 1736, succeeded to the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, and to the ancient barony of Strange, of Knockyn, Wotton, Mohun, Burnel, Basset, and Lacy. From 1737 to the general election of 1741 he sat in parliament both as an English baron and as a Scottish representative peer. On the approach of the highland army after the landing of the prince in 1745, Atholl fled southwards, and his elder brother, the Marquis of Tullibardine, took possession of the castle of Blair. Atholl, however, joined the army of the Duke of Cumberland in England, and, arriving with him in Edinburgh on 30 Jan. 1746, went northwards. On 9 Feb. he sent a summons to his vassals to attend at Dunkeld and Kirkmichael and join the king's troops (ib. p. 72). On 6 April 1763 Atholl resigned the office of privy seal on being appointed keeper of the great seal in room of Charles Douglas (1698-1778), duke of Queensberry and Dover. He was also at the same time made lord justice general. He died at Dunkeld on 8 Jan. 1764, in his seventy-fourth year.
By his first wife, Jean, widow of James Lannoy of Hammersmith, youngest daughter of Thomas Frederick, son and heir-apparent of Sir John Frederick, knight, alderman of London, he had a son and two daughters. The son died in infancy, and of the daughters, Jean married John, first earl of Crawford; and Charlotte, who survived her sister, and inherited on the death of her father in 1764 the barony of Strange and the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, married John Murray, third duke of Atholl [q. v.], eldest son of Lord George Murray [q. v.] By his second wife, Jane, daughter of John Drummond of Megginch, the second duke had no issue. This lady was the heroine of Dr. Austin's song 'For lack of gold she left me, oh!' She had jilted the doctor for the duke.
[Histories of the Rebellions in 1715 and 1745; Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. viii.; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 151-2.]