Lieutenant-General John Murray

Governor of Demerara 1813-April 1824, and a plantation owner in Berbice.

1. Will of John Murray Lieutenant-General in Her Majesty's Army of Clifton [made in 1841] proved 17/11/1841. The will declares that he had already made provision for his son the Rev. Charles Murrray and for his daughters Euphemia, the wife of Hugh Chudleigh Standert of Taunton and Augusta Hume [?] wife of John Radcliffe Esq. The will dedicates its first section to the management of his estates in British Guiana, De Resolutie ('with Middelburgs Welvaren annexed') and Buses Lust, both in Berbice and described as coffee plantations, and Huis T'Dieren ('and Middlesex annexed', of which he owned a moiety) in Essequibo, described as a sugar estate, including a proviso permitting the purchase by his trustees of a parcel of land adjacent to Buses Lust belonging to Plantation Highbury. He then directed the sale of all his real estate in Upper Canada, England and British Guiana. He left an annuity of £2000 p.a. to his wife, £700 for her own use and £1300 (£100 each p.a.) to support their minor children: daughters Sydney; Jemima; Harriet; Emily; Frederica; Ellen; Mary Maria and Jane Euphemia; and sons Augustus William, Henry; James Florence; Arthur and John. He left an annuity of £50 p.a. to Lydia Kendall of Kensington spinster (who was not further described). For his sons Augustus William and James Florence he provided for the purchase of commissions in the Army; for Arthur, either a commission or £2000 at age 25; for Henry £2000 'which I design to be for his advancement in the church.' He also at this stage refers to the purchase of a commission as Major for his son George Freeman Murray at the special request of his daughters, to whom he left £3000 each. His executors and trustees included his wife Ellen Butler [?] and Alexander Denoon of Adams Court in the City of London, his consignee.

2. Not all the children in the will appear to have been the children of John Murray and Ellen Butler Murray. The marriage certificate for Hugh Chudleigh Standert 09/09/1824 at St George Hanover Square shows his wife as Euphemia Murray Searle and Lt-Gen John Murray as guardian appointed by the Court of Chancery. The marriage by licence of John Murray Esq. bachelor and Ellen Butler O'Connor was recorded at St George Hanover Square 03/08/1827.

Carroll, The End of Slavery unpublished PhD (University of Michigan 1970) pp. 32 and 74.

1. PROB 11/1954/88.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online].