nesses of active treason could be produced by the government against them' (Journal of George II, p. 17). At the famous Westminster election of 1750 Murray took a very active part in favour of Sir George Vandeput, the anti-ministerial candidate. A complaint was preferred against him to the House of Commons by Peter Leigh, high bailiff of Westminster, on 20 Jan. 1751, to the effect that on 15 May 1750 he was the ringleader of a mob, whom he encouraged to acts of violence by shouting, 'Will no one have courage enough to knock the dog down?' On 1 Feb. 1751 he was called before the house, and after being taken into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms was admitted to bail, but on 6 Feb., by a majority of 169 to 52, he was ordered to be committed a close prisoner to Newgate. Thereafter, by a majority of 166 to 40, it was resolved that he should be brought to receive admonition on his knees, but to the speaker's request that he should kneel he answered, 'Sir, I beg to be excused ; I never kneel but to God' (ib. p. 29). It was thereupon carried that since he had 'absolutely refused to be on his knees,' he was 'guilty of a high and most dangerous contempt of the authority of the House of Commons,' and he was ordered to be recommitted to Newgate, the use of paper and pens being forbidden him, and no person to be admitted to him without the leave of the house. On the report of the doctor that his life was endangered by the gaol distemper he was ordered to be discharged from Newgate, and committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, with the same restrictions as formerly: but he declined to accept the relief offered him, and elected to remain in Newgate. On 27 April he was again brought before the house, when a motion was made to admit him to bail, which, however, was refused. In May he caused himself to be brought before the court of queen's bench on a writ of habeas corpus, but the judges unanimously refused to discharge him, deciding that the commons had power to judge their own privileges (Hallam, Const. Hist. iii. 274, 280). After the prorogation of parliament on 25 June he was released by the sheriffs of London; and in a coach, accompanied by Lord Carpenter and Sir George Vandeput, with the sheriffs in attendance in a chariot, went in procession from Newgate to the house of his brother, Lord Elibank, in Henrietta Street, with a banner carried before him inscribed ' Murray and Liberty.' His portrait in mezzotint was engraved, and a pamphlet on the case was circulated entitled 'The Case of the Hon. Alexander Murray, Esq., in an Appeal to the People of Great Britain, more particularly the Inhabitants of the City and Liberty of Westminster,' 1751. According to Horace Walpole, the author of the pamphlet was Paul Whitehead (Letters, ii. 201). Search was made for the pamphlet by the high bailiff of Westminster, and on 2 July Pugh the printer and Owen the publisher, after examination at the secretary's office, were detained in custody. Before the meeting of parliament in November Murray passed over to France, where he was known as Count Murray. On 25 Nov. a motion was carried in the House of Commons for his recommittal to Newgate, and a reward of five hundred pounds was offered for his apprehension. In 1763 he was concerned in the quarrel at Paris between his friend Captain Forbes and the notorious John Wilkes. In the 'Great Douglas cause' against James George, fourth duke of Hamilton, he displayed much zeal on behalf of the pursuer [see under Douglas, Archibald James Edward, first Baron Douglas]. In April 1771 he was recalled from exile by letter under the king's privy seal. He died unmarried in 1777. Murray was a correspondent of David Hume, for whom he had a high admiration. A portrait by Allan Ramsay is in the Scottish National Gallery, and was engraved by J. Faber.
[Case of Honourable Alexander Murray, 1751; Orders of the House of Commons, to which are added Proceedings of the House against the Hon. Mr. Murray, 2nd edit. 1756; Horace Walpole's George II; Horace Walpole's Letters; Burton's Life of Hume; Gent. Mag.; 1751; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 8; Mahon's Hist. of England, iv. 29-30.]
MURRAY, ALEXANDER, Lord Henderland (1736–1795), Scottish judge, born in Edinburgh in 1736, was the son of Archibald Murray of Murrayfield, near Edinburgh, advocate. He was called to the Scottish bar on 7 March 1758, and succeeded his father as sheriff-depute of the shire of Peebles in 1761, and as one of the commissaries of Edinburgh in 1765. On 24 May 1775 he was appointed solicitor-general for Scotland, and at the general election in September 1780 was returned to the House of Commons for Peeblesshire. The only speech he is recorded to have made in parliament was in opposition to Sir George Savile's motion relating to the petition of the delegated counties for a redress of grievances (Parl. Hist. xxii. 161-164). He succeeded Henry Home, lord Kames [q. v.], as an ordinary lord of session and a commissioner of the court of justiciary, and took his seat on the bench with the title of Lord Henderland on 6 March 1783.
