Lieutenant-General John Murray

???? - 1841

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

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.


Sources

Carroll, The End of Slavery unpublished PhD (University of Michigan 1970) pp. 32 and 74.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


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
Ellen Butler

Associated Claims (3)

£8,185 16s 5d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£13,823 6s 5d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£6,840 10s 8d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)

Associated Estates (5)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1825 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
1825 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
1817 [EA] - 1841 [EY] → Joint owner
1820 [EA] - 1820 [LA] → Other

Gen. John Murray and his partner George Bagot purchased 79 enslaved people on an unnamed estate on Dominica, dissolved the estate and shipped the enslaved people to Demerara in 1820.

1817 [EA] - 1817 [LA] → Joint owner

Legacies Summary

Imperial (1)

Founding member
City of the [Niagra] Falls Canada: Ontario 
notes →
John Murray was a co-founder of the City of the Falls project in 1832, aiming to develop a town on the Canadian side of the border at Niagara. The project was undercut by the arrival of a direct...
sources →
http://www.niagarafrontier.com/cityfalls.html [accessed 30/05/2014]. [This website includes inaccurate information about the compensation...

Addresses (2)

Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire, South-west England, England
Notes →

Will of Lt-Gen John Murray of Clifton proved 17/11/1841, PROB 11/1954/88.

London, London, England