William Murray

Returned Jamaican slave-owner, awarded the compensation as owner-in-fee for the Latium, Garland Grove and Purling Stream estates in St James, and the Hope estate in Manchester. Probably son of Walter Murray of Latium and certainly brother of Walter Murray of Dundee estate (both of whom q.v.).

1. William Murray was cited in 1815 saying that he had lived almost 20 years on his own sugar plantation in St James, but also held 'considerable property in right of his wife, in the parishes of Clarendon and Vere, and has the management of several estates belonging to his friends in England.' He was dead by 1851 (his wife Elizabeth Murray was a widow on the marriage of their daughter Sarah Joanna to Sir Godfrey Webster), and was almost certainly the William Murray of St George Hanover Square whose will was proved 25/2/1846, which refers to property in Jamaica, all of which he left to his wife.

2. The detail of William Murray's transmission of his Jamaica property (Latium, Garland Grove and Purling Stream) and the Hope estate of his wife Elizabeth Virgin (from her father Samuel Virgin) to their daughters Mary Murray (m. Henry Floyd bart. 1821) and Sarah Joanna Murray under her two marriage settlements (first, 06/02/1832 with Charles Ashburnham, younger son of George Ashburnham late Earl of Ashburnham; secondly 1851 Sir Godfrey Webster) are given in Documents deposited by Darley, Cumberland & Co., solicitors per BRA 1374, 4 August 1964 (A627)

3. Walter Murray late of Latium d. Cheltenham [Gloucestershire] 26th Sept 1794. 1800 Aug 1st Wm Murray of Jamaica m. Miss Virgin, dau. of Samuel Virgin of Ruxley at Thames Ditton.

4. In 1815, sale by order of Chancery in Bruce v Kinloch of annuity of £100 p.a. granted in 1775 by Wm and Walter Murray, both decd., secured on Latium and Garland Grove, payable on lives of Francis Newton decd. and Elizabeth Young, spinster [now Bruce widow]. 'Mrs Bruce, the surviving life, is a widow lady residing at Edinburgh [Scotland], of the age of 61 years, and in good health.'

5. Sarah, widow of Samuel Virgin, Esq. of Weymouth Street and of the island of Jamaica died at the house of her son-in-law at Bryanston Square, 08/05/1822.

T71/ St James nos. 181, 192, 194; T71/ Manchester no. 112

1. Journals of Assembly of Jamaica, 12 1808-15 p 814, cited in B. W. Higman, Plantation Jamaica 1750-1850: capital and control in a colonial economy (Mona, Jamaica, University of West Indies Press, 2005), n.90 p 309; PROB 11/2031/223.

2. East Sussex Record Office [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=179-amss&cid=16&16, accessed 10/09/2010] The Administrative history shows William Murray of Latium late of Bryanstone Square and in 1832 of Albermarie [sic] St. Mx. It also shows Hope as Clarendon: it's in the compensation records under Manchester 111 & 112.

3. Times 27/05/1833 p. 1; Times 18/06/1836 p.1.

4. Times 01/07/1815 p. 2.

5. The London Magazine vol. 5 p. 106 (June 1822).