Sir David Murray, Baronet, of Stanhope

Sir David Murray, Bart, of Stanhope, was one of the titled prisoners of the rebellion, being the nephew of  John Murray of Broughton. He was a youth of only sixteen years when he attached himself to the Jacobite party. Being much thought of by Prince Charles, he was chosen to be one of the latter's aides-de-camp. Though so young, he held the rank of Captain in BAGGOT'S Hussars, whose regimental headgear was a fur cap. He appears to have freely requisitioned horses and arms, for which he gave receipts. One of these reads thus:— “Sir James Cunningham, Milncraig, near Livingston. Livingston, Oct. 28, 1745. Received of Sir James Cunningham a Bay Mare, a Saddle, a Fowling Piece and a Broadsword by D. Murray."

On the day of the Clifton Moor engagement, before it was fought, Sir David went from the house of Arthur Moore, where he was quartered, towards Clifton, and immediately returned to Colonel Bagnott, a brother officer, and said, “Colonel, shall I set fire to the village?‟ to which the colonel replied, “Ay, damn it, stick and stone."

There is no record, however, of the accomplishment of such an act of destruction. After Culloden, Sir David roamed the country, and some of his wanderings are recounted in the Journal of the Escape of the Young Chevalier (London, 1760).

On the Friday following the Clifton Moor engagement he was at Ruthveu in Badenoch; he was next heard of at Lochleven near Glencoe, then at Glenlyon, and afterwards at the Braes of Balquhidder on his way to an English coast town.

The State records tell how he came to be captured. Two custom officers received information that there was in the house of a Catholic named Simpson, a mile from Whitby, a person waiting for a passage abroad. They accordingly went and searched the house, but found that Sir David, for it was he, had quitted his bed and escaped into a hedge in a field close by. Here he turned at bay, drew his pen-knife and ran “very fiercely‟ up to the officers; but before he could close with them he was knocked down with a cane and secured.

He said that if he had had his pistols he would have shot them both. He was in disguise and was about to board a vessel at Whitby, which had been hired to take him to Holland. The Privy Council, when considering his case in August 1747, recommended that he be pardoned on condition of banishment. No action, however, was taken at the time of this recommendation, and, early in 1748, his kinsman Lord Hopetoun petitioned successfully for his release (S.P.D., 109-11) in the following terms : "Lord Hopetoun Begs leave most humbly to Entreat the Duke of Newcastle to Interceed with his Majesty, that Sir David Murray, prisoner in York Castle, may be liberated from his confinement on such conditions as to his Majesty shall seem meet, which the said Lord Hopetoun will always acknowledge as a particular favour, Sir David being his relation". It was not until September 1748, however, that the necessary orders were passed (P.S.O., 6733, Sept. 1748)

In December of same year, being attached to Prince Charles's retinue, he was arrested in Paris along with his master and put into confinement till they were all conducted out of France.

(Ref: “Jacobite Gleanings: from state manuscripts” by J. Macbeth Forbes. Page 10)